DABC is hiring for two positions within our Access DTC Program. Find out more below and see the full job postings on our Careers page.

We are committed to fostering a respectful, inclusive and equitable workplace which is representative of the community we serve. We welcome those who have demonstrated a commitment to upholding the values of inclusion, anti-ableism, anti-racism and reconciliation. Applications are encouraged from members of groups that are historically disadvantaged and underrepresented, including Indigenous persons, and people of all sexual orientations, gender expressions and identities. People with disabilities are especially encouraged to apply. Accommodations are available during the hiring process, upon request.

DTC Community Advocate

Open: August 1, 2025
Closes: August 22, 2025
Location: Vancouver, BC
Category: Community and Social Services Job
Type: Full-time, One-year fixed term
Salary: $54,000

The Access DTC program provides direct support through the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) and related benefits including the Child Disability Benefit, Canada Disability Benefit and Registered Disability Savings Plan to promote financial literacy and financial security for people with disabilities in British Columbia. Access to the DTC and related benefits has become more relevant, as many people with disabilities will need the DTC to apply for the Canada Disability Benefit. We are seeking advocates passionate about social justice issues to join our dynamic team and help grow our impact in BC and beyond.

Job Description – Community Advocate

You will join a team of advocates, working one-on-one with people with disabilities to provide in-depth support through the DTC and associated benefits, and helping people claim the DTC by filing their income taxes. You will help raise awareness about DTC through the development of strategic partnerships and community outreach. You are also an active team member, able to contribute to the additional administrative responsibilities associated with the day-to-day operation of the program.

Vancouver Island Community Advocate | Access DTC Program

Post Open: August 1, 2025
Post Closes: August 22, 2025, 4:30pm
Location: Vancouver Island, BC
Category: Community and Social Services
Job Type: Contractor (3 days/week)
Term: Until March 31, 2026, with possibility of extension
Salary: $34/hour
Report to: Vancouver Island Community Engagement Specialist, Director-Access DTC Program, Disability Alliance BC

Project Background 

Through a new RDSP initiative, the Access DTC program works to reduce poverty and barriers to long-term financial stability for people with disabilities living on Vancouver Island. The RDSP is a long-term savings plan designed to help people with disabilities access significant financial savings for their future. The successful candidate will help to increase access to the DTC, RDSP, and other related benefits by raising awareness about the program and supporting people across Vancouver Island communities to navigate through the application process.

Duties & Responsibilities 

Under the supervision of DABC’s Access DTC Program Director and Vancouver Island Community Engagement Specialist, the Community Advocate will:

• Provide one-on-one support (remote and in person) for people with disabilities to apply for the DTC and related benefits. Direct services will include facilitating mobile clinics across Vancouver Island and will require access to a motor vehicle to travel across Vancouver Island
• Reach out to the community using a variety of means including developing educational materials, delivering of virtual and in-person workshops, establishing new community partnerships to improve DTC/RDSP uptake for people with disabilities on Vancouver Island
• Create and deliver training modules to community service providers as well as health, educational, and financial professionals on the DTC/RDSP/related benefits to build capacity for sustained support within local communities
• Work closely with Access DTC program partners, the Island Health Authority (IHA), and community partners by attending regular internal team meetings and meetings with partners.

Dear DABC community,

Happy Holidays!

Please note that Disability Alliance BC will be closed for the holidays from Monday, December 23rd, 2024 – Friday, January 3rd, 2025. Our office will reopen on Monday, January 6th. During this time, we will only be responding to very urgent messages. All other messages will receive a response as soon as possible after we reopen.

Year-End Fundraising Update

Between the spirit of holiday gifting and annual tax planning, December is THE top month for charitable giving each year, accounting for more than a quarter of donations annually to all nonprofits. With the postal strike having put a hold on donations by mail during this usually busiest time for philanthropy, we’re calling on you, our online supporters, to help us bridge this gap with a strong fundraising finish to 2024.

So far this year, thanks to your support DABC has raised $26,647.25 from 263 individual donations. That’s an awesome groundswell of goodwill that has us within reach of a record-breaking $30,000 from 300 donors!

Will you join us now in making this DABC’s best fundraising year ever? No donation is too large or too small to make a difference for people living with disabilities. You can donate here: https://give-can.keela.co/dabc.

With the new Canada Disability Benefit looming on the horizon in 2025, our advocacy is reaching new heights of urgency and impact as the disability community grows and policies strain to meet increasing needs.

Some accomplishments we couldn’t have achieved without your support this year include: updating our online tool for those applying for the Disability Tax Credit, advocating for the removal of the spousal cap for those on provincial disability assistance (and the Province agreeing to work on this as noted in their 2024 Poverty Reduction Strategy), and translating our Help Sheets and CPP-D Guides into four other languages: Arabic, Persian, Punjabi and Spanish.

We send our heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you for being a part of our movement, and appreciate any and all financial support at this important time for the disability community and movement for inclusion and equity across BC.

From all of us here at DABC, wishing you and yours a happy and peaceful holiday season!

As we reported in late September, DABC prepared a document that aims to highlight key election issues within the disability community and advocates for a provincial government that actively includes people with disabilities in shaping the future of our province. You can download it here: https://disabilityalliancebc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/DABC-Key-Election-Priorities.docx.

Within the document, we also identified our election asks and categorized them into 5 key priority areas. The election priorities were distributed to each political party.

We have received a response from the BC NDP, which can be downloaded here or read below:

Dear Helaine Boyd and Members of DABC,

Thank you for submitting these important questions to us. Disability Alliance BC does critical work across BC to advocate for people with disabilities in our communities. Throughout our response, you will see us use “people with disabilities” and “disabled people” interchangeably, recognizing that we don’t have the opportunity to ask readers what they prefer, and our disabled NDP membership uses both.

This is a pivotal moment in our province – David Eby and the BC NDP are working hard to ensure that equity-deserving groups have a government that respects their rights, cares about their needs, and prioritizes their interests.

We have more work to do to ensure people with disabilities in BC can enjoy the same opportunities as people without disabilities. When our BC NDP government passed the Accessible BC Act, we knew this was an important step, and part of work that has been underway for decades – led by people with lived experience and disability-serving organizations.

The work led by our Accessibility Directorate and Advisory Committee laid the foundation for further action in the upcoming years. Some of the BC NDP’s plans are detailed explicitly in our platform. Other commitments, if we are elected, would come out of continued work to implement the Accessible BC Act.

Poverty Reduction

The BC NDP recognizes that for a variety of reasons, people with disabilities are more likely to live in poverty. We’re determined to see disabled British Columbians enjoy full inclusion in their communities. The Province’s obligations are now enshrined in law.

We will adjust spousal clawbacks and ensure British Columbians continue to receive the full level of benefits provided by the Government of Canada. There are further measures identified in the 2024 Poverty Reduction Strategy that we intend to explore, if elected.

Due to rising interest rates, corporate gouging, and inflation, many people across BC are struggling with affordability, which we’ve emphasized throughout our platform. In addition to making life more affordable and avoiding unnecessary costs for all, we’re excited about what our move toward efficient and effective government could do in the area of accessibility. We’re concerned by the amount of time and energy people with disabilities use to navigate services that are intended to make life easier. We plan to work with disabled people, groups like DABC, and our Accessibility Directorate to ensure that our plans to modernize government also address accessibility issues.

A Conservative government under John Rustad is a risk we can’t afford. DABC was there when John  Rustad was a cabinet minister with the BC Liberals for many years and made life much harder for people with disabilities. For nine years, disability rates under his government remained stagnant, and many disability-related services and supports were cut completely. When bus passes for disabled people were revoked, many people, families and supporters protested at the legislature. Their voices were ignored. This would be the type of government that we would expect under John Rustad.

If elected, we hope to continue working with you to prevent poverty for people with disabilities and support those who are already experiencing it.

Transit

Getting people in BC where they need to go, quickly and easily, is a key priority within our NDP platform. It will help us meet our climate goals and will allow people to spend less time in traffic.

If elected, a BC NDP government would connect our communities through expanded rapid transit options, and make it more affordable for people to take public transit. The people within this province are diverse, and the way we get from A to B is diverse, too. For those who need to drive, we’ll take care of core infrastructure to reduce road congestion, and we’ll improve active transportation for people that can’t or don’t drive, for whatever reason. Ensuring that universal design principles are incorporated into transit planning has been identified as a key government priority in response to the Accessible BC Act, and this is something we’re keen to explore for upcoming transit projects.

As part of our platform, we’ve also determined that HandyDART will be government operated, which will ensure that when issues arise, government can take action to resolve them and prevent further issues in the future.

Housing

The delivery of suitable and secure housing for people with disabilities is a priority area for us. When our NDP government passed the Accessible BC Act, BC Housing was selected as a pilot organization to respond to the Act and report back on progress. Early measures were completed with the understanding that engagement work would continue.

We intend to increase the supply of suitable housing by using the BC Building Code, which will require all new housing units to be adaptable, starting spring of 2025. At least 5% of homes built through provincial funding must be fully wheelchair accessible. All common amenity spaces must also be fully wheelchair accessible.

The BC NDP platform includes further funding for non-market housing, and we’re in the process of determining how this funding will be used.

Finally, we’re working to improve housing for people with disabilities that live with a caregiver. The BC NDP will improve homeshare rates through Community Living BC. This also opens up opportunities for more people with disabilities to stay with their loved ones.

Healthcare

The BC NDP agrees that healthcare is an equity issue. When we formed government in 2017, one of our first priorities was to get rid of unfair MSP fees, which had been doubled under John Rustad and his old BC Liberal government. Since becoming leader of the BC NDP, David Eby has been taking action to train and hire more doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers than ever before.. We’ve connected 248,000 people to a family doctor or nurse practitioner since July 2023 – with 160,000 more matched in the next six months. With this pace, we will make sure everyone who wants a family doctor or nurse practitioner gets one by the end of 2025.

We are committed to bringing down costs for people in rural, remote, and First Nation communities who need to travel for specialist health care services by expanding the Travel Assistance Program to include mileage for car travel. And we’ll cover travel expenses before they’re due for payment, so people aren’t paying out of pocket and waiting for a refund.

Our platform also includes expanded access to mental health supports and counselling, including a fund to increase services in the community. We’re also committing to increased mental health supports in schools, increased support staff in schools, and better programming for students with disabilities.

Discrimination in healthcare was already illegal before the Accessible BC Act was passed, but there will be further opportunities to make service delivery more accessible through its continued implementation. The BC NDP government’s decision to restore the BC Human Rights Commission, gutted by Rustad’s previous government,  is another tool to help combat discrimination in all its forms.

John Rustad’s Conservatives plan is to cut billions from the healthcare budget, privatize services, and invest in corporate profits instead of people. This would hurt us all, but for people who use our healthcare system to manage ongoing conditions, this approach would be especially hard on them and their families.

We know there’s more work to do, which is why we can’t risk losing the progress we’ve made. Healthcare should always be there when you need it. And David Eby won’t stop until the job is done.

We look forward to working together to strengthen healthcare in BC.

Accessible BC Act

If elected, we would continue to work on implementing the Accessible BC Act with the guidance of people with lived experience and organizations that support people with disabilities in the community.

The BC NDP will also continue to work with people with disabilities to implement the first two standards – Accessible Service Delivery and Employment Accessibility – which will remove barriers for people with disabilities to access services and goods, and to prevent barriers in hiring, training and retention.

All relevant organizations must uphold their obligations under the Accessibility Act, which does not permit organizations to hold off on implementation until they receive a specialized pool of funding. At the same time, a BC NDP government would work through the Directorate to ensure that organizations are resourced to meet expectations across the board – including equitable and accessible services for disabled British Columbians.

For context, these are the questions that DABC asked the provincial parties: