In 1982 the Comox District Teachers’ Self-Help Centre was founded to meet the needs of unemployed teachers. Sponsored by the British Columbia Teachers Federation, it provided peer counseling and professional development workshops. Job Creation projects were initiated and included a French Mini-School and a tutoring service. In 1985, a Job Entry project received funding from the Canada Employment Centre (CEC), and in 1986 the first Comox Valley Work Experience program was funded by CEC.
In 1989 Creative Employment Access Society (CEAS) was incorporated to better serve the unemployed and underemployed community. We have successfully delivered employment related programs and services in the Comox Valley for 27 years. Throughout the years our society has provided programming to meet the needs of our community and we have adjusted to deal with specific labour market issues present at the time. Some examples of the breadth and depth of our experience are:
- retraining for displaced commercial fishers;
- retraining for displaced forestry workers;
- training and work experience for agriculture workers;
- self-employment program for youth;
- retraining for youth, women, and older workers;
- employment preparation for long term unemployed;
