Our History

2017	We opened at our new, permanent office location - 1004 North Park Street in Victoria - on September 1, 2017. Our Executive Director worked with the Board of Directors and administrative staff to secure permanent office space in the shared building, which is dedicated to non-profit organizations.
2015	A special general member's meeting was called to update our organization name to Family Services of Greater Victoria(FSGV). The name change reflects that we now provide more services to families in general, rather than just those going through a separation, divorce, or family reorganization.
2012	BCFIT moved to a storefront at 899 Fort Street The society has several full- and part-time regular staff, as well as a team of counsellors and facilitators who work on contract. Many of our services are provided by volunteers, who continue to be the backbone of the organization.
2008	The agency celebrated its 30th Anniversary with an open house and an event at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club. This was graciously funded by the Government of Canada's job creation program.
2007	The Board changed our name to BC Families in Transition to better reflect the clients we served, who were not necessarily going through a separation or divorce. An effort was made to expand the availability of individual counselling. Counselling for couples and families was also made available. With financial help from TELUS, we started offering Expressive Arts and Play Therapy for children as young as 4 years old.
2003	We moved to our own space at 812 Broughton Street after our space was taken back by the Rose Manor Seniors Facility
2001	In response to clients' needs, we started providing services geared toward step-families (aka blended families). We added the Parenting with a New Partner program.
1997	The Ministry of Justice implemented Parenting After Separation workshops in locations across British Columbia. We were chosen to provide the sessions for Victoria.
1996	Our first attempt at shared space - we moved to a shared facility with the Victoria Child Abuse Prevention and Counselling Society (Mary Manning Centre) at 730 Quadra Street(part of the Rose Manor Seniors Facility). This new facility provided us with group rooms, play rooms, and a reception area as well as individual offices for staff members.
1995	The office expanded from a single room to a suite of offices, a reception room and a meeting room in the First United Church.
1994	The the name of the organization was changed to Separation and Divorce Resource Centre to better reflect the breadth of services offered to the community. A new logo was adopted.
1988	The Law Foundation of BC provided funds to implement Volunteer Support Services, i.e. Family Court service and supervised access.
1987	The Caught in the Middle parents' program was initiated to help parents deal with parenting issues arising from divorce/separation. It was designed to run concurrently with the children's program. We began hosting supervised access to allow children time with their non-custodial parent (this service was discontinued in 2007).
1986	We partnered with the United Way of Greater Victoria. We were a founding member of the 7-11 Bingo and received a license for one Bingo per week.
1985	Caught in The Middle was initiated as a program for children. Court support service began.
1984	An office was opened in space rented from First United Church. This made individual sessions possible on a daily basis while continuing to provide the evening group sessions. Counsellors donated much of their time to keep Divorce Lifeline going during this period, as funds were scarce and sporadic.
1978	A non-profit charitable society was registered using the name Divorce Lifeline of Victoria with start-up funding from the Ministry of the Attorney General. The Board was able to obtain enough funding to keep the service functioning long enough for its importance to be recognized. Only one program was offered: a weekly evening session for adults. In the first year, 232 clients attended these sessions.