Connective's Leadership Gathering
Connecting Services & People
Space for Collaborative Solutions
Unprecedented pressure on housing, healthcare, justice, and social systems demands coordinated action. Each year, Connective brings together leaders and experts from across sectors to strengthen the social safety net through connection and innovation.
Bringing Sectors Together
- Up to 100 participants from justice, health, housing, and social sectors
- Two days of panels, discussions, and case studies
- Stronger relationships across systems and organizations
- Shared insights that lead to actionable, cross-sector solutions
We believe meaningful change happens when we work together. To inquire about sponsorship opportunities, please contact info@connective.ca
The 2026 Leadership Gathering
We’re excited to announce that the 4th annual Leadership Gathering will take place February 9-10, 2026 at SFU Harbour Centre in Vancouver.
This year’s theme, Building Housing Solutions for People Facing Complex Needs, focuses on how the right housing options can strengthen the functionality of our health, justice, housing and social service systems at all stages.
Building on past Gatherings, the event will move dialogue toward shared action to better support people facing complex needs. Participants will learn from emerging models of housing with embedded care and services, while grounding discussions in the lived experiences of people whose needs are often most challenging for our systems to meet.
Together, participants will identify strategies and actions to better coordinate and advance housing options that are critical to improving outcomes across all sectors.
Key themes include:
- Breaking down silos between service systems
- Fostering relationships, understanding and engagement
- Centering lived experience in design and decision-making
- Taking an action-oriented perspective
Our 2026 Sponsors
Thank you to our generous sponsors who have made this year’s event possible.
Since 2022, Connective’s Leadership Gathering has offered leaders and experts from the justice, health, housing, and social sectors—including Indigenous voices—a non-attributed space for open, candid, and constructive conversations.
Despite the significant overlap in clients and outcomes across these sectors, collaboration on shared challenges and opportunities remain far too rare. The Leadership Gathering seeks to change that. By encouraging participants to set aside internal and external pressures, preconceived notions, and past frustrations, the Leadership Gathering fosters honest dialogue, strengthens connections between leaders, and advances progress on shared goals.
Over two days of guided discussion, participants exchange diverse opinions and expertise, identify common roadblocks, and workshop a series of recommendations for improving service delivery to populations facing complex challenges. The resulting recommendations aim to bridge longstanding gaps, strengthen collaboration, and ultimately improve outcomes for the individuals and communities we serve.
The third annual Leadership Gathering took place in January 2025. The theme, Public Health, Public Safety, and Complex Needs – Finding Common Ground, was chosen in recognition of the increasingly polarized environment surrounding the acute and overlapping crises of homelessness, overdoses, addiction, and untreated/undertreated mental health disorders.
