ESTEVAN — The United Way Estevan delivered funding to the Southeast College Education Foundation through the Government of Canada's Community Services Recovery Fund.
Southeast College announced $51,320 in funding to support the Mental Health Counselling pilot project at all campuses across the Southeast College.
College CEO Vicky Roy noted that being able to deliver mental health support to their students and staff in rural settings was very important for them, and said they were grateful for the funding.
"This will make a big difference for our employees and students. And really, it's so important for us in rural Saskatchewan," Roy said.
The pilot project will allow for the establishment of a mental health counselling position to provide resources, educational presentations and one-on-one counselling services at the college.
The work that led to that announcement started about a year ago, said college communication and strategic enrolment executive director Sheena Onrait.
"I was travelling to career fairs, with our student advisor at the time, and I was asking him, 'Why are students dropping out? What's the main reason why they're dropping out?' And he said, 'I would say the main reason, 95 per cent of the time, is mental health challenges that they just aren't able to overcome on their own.' And so I said, 'Okay, this is a problem. This is somewhere that we can focus on.' And so we started discussing, what kind of grant options we have and what do we do to try to find some funding to help us accomplish this goal. And then it all just came together," Onrait shared.
Through surveys, students have reported mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, stress, trauma, transition/developmental difficulties, interpersonal relationships and family concerns, all of which are measurably higher since the pandemic.
This project will help to address the needs in Weyburn, Estevan and the other rural campus locations in southeast Saskatchewan. The pilot project will feature a counsellor who travels from campus to campus to connect with staff and students, including those in communities on First Nations in the region.
"In early September, we secured the contract with our mental health counsellor, and she has spent the last few weeks developing the programming and the processes for the college. She is an ideal candidate, and we are so thrilled to have this program now underway at the college," said Tania Hlohovsky Andrist, applied research lead officer who was heavily involved with bringing the pilot project to life.
United Way Estevan has worked with United Way Centraide Canada as part of the Government of Canada's Community Services Recovery Fund (CSRF) to deliver the funding.
"CSRF is a federally-funded program. They used United Way Centraide to distribute the funds. So, they gave us a certain amount of funding to be able to give to whoever applied. We ended up having two applicants, and both of them were very good. And we're very pleased to be able to provide funding to Southeast College. We needed to up that funding a little bit and United Way Centraide Canada was able to give us a little extra money so that we could fully fund the program," explained Heidi Hesselink, United Way Estevan executive director.
This fund is being administered collaboratively by the Canadian Red Cross, Community Foundations of Canada, and United Way Centraide Canada to provide funding to community service organizations, including non-profit organizations, Indigenous governing bodies and registered charities located in Canada. The Community Services Recovery Fund responds to what community service organizations need right now and supports organizations as they adapt to the long-term impacts of the pandemic.
The pilot project will go until the end of the 2023-24 school year, but the college already has more ideas and plans in the work to keep addressing the mental health needs of students and staff, as well as potentially creating space for applied research in the field.
"We do currently have a continuation for two more years for this program sitting and waiting in a grants file for another program that we can keep this going. So, there's a real expectation and the hope … to continue this, because now we're going to have some data, and now we're going to have some results from this program to then use and bolster that for sustainability. Because it's not a one-year situation, it's not just coming out of COVID," Andrist explained.
The college is also currently accepting applications for its new mental health and addictions counselling program based out of the Estevan campus, slated to start next September, which will educate more specialists in this high-demand field. Onrait said interest has been great so far, and they hope it will be successful.
The Community Services Recovery Fund is a one-time investment of $400 million by the Government of Canada to help community service organizations adapt, modernize and be better equipped to improve the efficacy, accessibility and sustainability of the community services that they provide through the pandemic recovery and beyond.
Community service organizations are at the forefront of addressing communities' needs. Since the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have struggled with increased demand for their services, reduced revenues, declines in charitable giving due to the rising cost of living, and a greater need to make use of digital tools. Many organizations are struggling to recover and adapt their services to the changing needs of Estevan and the region.
"The projects supported by the Government of Canada through the Community Services Recovery Fund demonstrate that we are a caring and compassionate society that values the well-being of all its members. It is heartening to see the compassion and empathy of our citizens as they give back to those in need. Projects like the Mental Health Counselling pilot project are a testament to the power of our collective action and our ability to come together to make a positive difference in the world. I am confident that together we can make a meaningful impact on the lives of those in southeast Saskatchewan," said Jenna Sudds, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development.
