Vision & Mission

What Drives Us

Our Vision

Nidus envisions a future where all adults in BC have a right to self-determination* and access to support if they need help with decision-making, without the need to take away or restrict their rights.

What is Self-Determination?

Individuals from marginalized communities have both historically and in modern times, been denied their right to self-determination. Self-determination is about having the right and freedom to make choices and decisions about your own life, and to have the responsibility to experience the consequences of these decisions.

Supporters and allies can help promote self-determination by providing individuals with independence, interdependent support, or substitute decision-making on an as-needed basis, while recognizing and understanding the importance of all individuals to participate meaningfully in their own lives and in their communities.

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 Persons 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.

How we’re getting there

Our Mission

Our mission is to empower adults to:

• learn about their rights under the laws that can affect their self-determination;
• protect and maintain their self-determination; and
• take action in forming a legal plan for their present (in case one’s capability to ‘understand’ is in question), or future (mental incapacity due to illness, injury, or disability), to prevent the need for Adult Guardianship/Committeeship.

We provide British Columbians with education, support, and assistance with personal planning and Representation Agreements, and have developed institutional expertise about the creation, use, and support around these important planning tools.

Since 1995

Why Nidus

What sets Nidus apart

Nidus is 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.

The Nidus Resource Centre provides, as funding allows:

• public legal education on personal planning and related matters;
• Representation Agreement forms;
• training for volunteers and groups;
• problem solving and coaching in support of best practices for attorneys, representatives, and monitors; and
• policy consultation for third parties.

The Resource Centre also operates a centralized Registry, called the Nidus Registry for personal planning documents and other important information and documents in case of a health crisis or other emergency.