Today I received the $$ raised for “My Birthday Wish” supporting and bringing awareness to Distress Centre. I am so grateful to everyone who donated, sent well wishes and held this fundraising campaign in their heart & prayers! Michelle from the Distress Centre provided an awesome breakdown of how the funds will be used… This is a fantastic look into just a small part of the incredible work the Distress Centre does, as well as showing just how much funding is needed!!!
Lee, I wanted to give you an idea what we can do with the funds raised through your birthday donations. Feel free to share this with your generous friends and family. Here is an idea of the difference the $3,800 you raised together makes.
$1,000 We can recruit and train (65 hours of training) 2 crisis line volunteers who respond to countless calls from people in crisis. Every day, there are 1-2 calls from someone in the midst of a suicide attempt, a person at the very end of their rope. These volunteers connect with the callers to help them get to hospital and get the help they need to stay safe. These volunteers take their skills with them and apply them outside of Distress Centre volunteering. We hear back again and again how from drawing on their experiences here, they are a better listener and support to family & friends, have better coworker relationships, and that their personal perspectives and outlook on life has changed. Our volunteers are ambassadors, creating a more inclusive, supportive community.
$ 1,000 We were able to provide emergency financial assistance to two families in need. Assistance is to help cover basic needs, such as shelter, food or utilities. Many of our clients are just managing on very modest incomes. When an unexpected event occurs (job lay off, rent increase, illness etc) there is no room in their budget for unexpected expenses. This causes them to fall behind in bills and makes it extremely challenging to get out of a cycle of poverty. Due to the less than optimal conditions they live with; (i.e. spending less on healthy food to save money, high stress over finances, long work days to make ends meet) they are often at higher risk for health problems, both physical and emotional, which adds to the multiple challenges they work to overcome.
In one example, we had a single mother of a four children who was studying English to improve her ability to work and earn a living wage. She suffers from a chronic illness and a relapse required her to miss a semester of school to recover and care for her health. Social assistance was reduced from her change in status over the semester away. We assisted her to cover her rent shortfall to keep her family stable in this mean time.
In another example, a young family was living in an apartment that was affordable to them, but became unsuitable when an infestation of bugs occurred. They located another home but needed assistance with moving expenses and damage deposit.
$1,800 Staffs the 211 Information and Referral Line with one specialist for 3 days (72 hours). This line takes an average of 145 calls a day for people seeking information on available resource in their community. In a recent calls example, a woman was seeking help for a friend who had recently left a violent relationship. Her friend was seeking work, but had no appropriate work attire. She had worked in bars previously but was interested in working in a different industry, feeling that the environment was not good for her sense of self worth. The caller was referred to the Walk In Closet, where free consultations and work clothing for women is offered. In addition, the 211 specialist suggested counselling for the friend to work through the trauma she experienced in her abusive relationship, both CCASA and the Women’s Health Collective were noted as options.
A recent case study found that for every dollar invested in Distress centre, at least $5.16 in social value is created from things like reductions in use of police, EMS, Emergency rooms etc. So your donation created $19,608 in social value to the Calgary community.
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND FOR MAKING AN IMPACT THAT CREATED $19,608 IN SOCIAL VALUE TO OUR CALGARY COMMUNITY… AND FOR EVERYONE THAT DONATED THAT ARE NOT FROM CALGARY – A SPECIAL THANK YOU!!!!
AND REMEMBER – IF YOU ARE IN DISTRESS OR CRISIS – REACH OUT AND ASK FOR HELP – YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!! XOXOX
