On March 19th, over 40 adult community members and various young people met at the hall for a lunch hosted by the Sasamans society to present their findings from their community engagement that took place during the summer of 2012. The Gwa'sala-'Nakwaxda'xw Child & Family Services team also presented on their work. Sasamans is piloting a program in partnership with our Child & Family Services team to have an Aboriginal Child & Family Counselor position work from our office. Attached you will find a copy of their report "Caring for our own Children".
In addition, we also now have a protocol with the North Island Crisis & Counseling Centre so that community members who need help can get support 24 hours a day. Anyone can call the crisis line at (250) 949-6033 to get immediate support. If it's an emergency, they will contact 911 for emergency services to respond. Our office will receive an automatic notification on the next business day so we can follow up. If it's not an emergency and someone feels they need more help than just talking, then the crisis line worker will ask if you would like a referral. If you agree, they will take your name and we will have an instant notification the next work day and can assign a member of our team to follow up. This is one way of working to fill in gaps and make sure community members have access to emergency supports 24 hours a day AND that we can do consistent follow up! This is already in place and is working!
Dean Wilson