About Us
The Nidus Personal Planning Resource Centre is a non-profit, charitable organization and was incorporated in 1995 as the Representation Agreement Resource Centre (RARC).
Nidus/RARC was founded by citizens and community groups who were involved in the community-based reform of British Columbia’s adult guardianship legislation. These groups wanted to ensure the public had a resource for information on Representation Agreements and other personal planning tools. The founding groups were the Alzheimer Society of BC, BC Association for Community Living, BC Coalition of People with Disabilities, Council of Senior Citizen’s Organizations, Family Link, and Network of Burnaby Seniors.
In 2008, RARC changed its name to the Nidus Personal Planning Resource Centre to better reflect the broadening scope of its work as a resource centre, which had expanded beyond just Representation Agreements. Nidus is a Latin term for nest, a symbol of safety, support, and self-development.
Nidus is currently the only community-based resource in Canada devoted to personal planning. Its existence sets British Columbia apart as a leader in addressing the critical needs of an aging population.
Nidus is the expert on Representation Agreements, which are a legal model for supported decision making. B.C.’s Representation Agreement Act inspired Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (2008) which calls on governments to implement legislation that ensures all adults receive support with decision making without the need to take away or restrict their rights. The Convention has been ratified by Canada.
Nidus serves the entire province of British Columbia and is located in Vancouver.
Nidus provides
- public legal education on personal planning and related matters.
- training for volunteers and groups.
- problem solving and coaching in support of best practices for attorneys, representatives and monitors.
- policy consultation for third parties.
Nidus also operates a centralized Registry for personal planning documents in partnership with Juricert Inc. of the Law Society of British Columbia.
Nidus relies on donations and modest fees for services. Over the years, Nidus has received funding from a variety of sources for specific projects. See the Funders Section of the website for information on project funders past and present. Nidus is currently making efforts to establish core funding to provide security for the Resource Centre’s future.
Board of Directors
The Nidus Board of Directors includes retired professionals, academics, lawyers, and community advocates, many of whom were involved in the law reform of the 1990s. Nidus’ Executive Director, Joanne Taylor, was volunteer chair of the Representation Agreement Task Group (RATG) from 1993 to 2000 and became Executive Director of RARC/Nidus in 2000.
We remember Tom Klopp (1923 to 2017), a founding member of Nidus and original member of the law reform project to review adult guardianship.
Click for some views of Tom and his involvement in RA History.
Tom & Norma Klopp were featured in Van. Sun 1993 – click to read tribute.
