How the Blenk Family Fund and Your Support Makes a Difference!
A lot of things happen behind the scenes and are not always immediately visible to the public eye, but the support of our donors never goes unnoticed. We’ve recently received impact reports of how the Blenk Family Fund and your contributions have brought direct help and relief to young people.
CLARITY
One of our major initiatives, the CLARITY research project to prevent youth suicide, is currently moving forward with huge steps.
At the moment, CLARITY is actively recruiting youth advisors in order to work towards building community resilience in the Okanagan. To learn more and to apply for this paid position, please click the button below.
On May 24th 2022, the CLARITY World Café-style event is taking place, which brings together team members, community partners, and leaders in youth mental health alongside community change-makers to imagine a path forward together. At this workshop, the CLARITY team aims to bridge silos and create wrap-around supports that can protect against suicidality among youth in the Central Okanagan.
We are excited and proud to watch this research project evolve and grow. We will keep you posted about more CLARITY news and research.
UBC Day of Giving 2021
In April 2021 we were able to raise $6,100 during the UBC Day of Giving in support of the Walk-In Wellness Clinic at UBC Okanagan. This donation continues to support a barrier-free clinic that is accessible to students, staff, faculty, and community members through both in-person and virtual services. It has also opened its doors to the wider community, giving graduate students valuable clinical training experience, learning directly from the supervision of registered clinical psychologists.
Since the donation was made the clinic has also been able to increase their capacity by expanding their virtual services, and they’ve been able to invest in effective therapy tools
The Walk-In Wellness Clinic has provided psychological services to approximately 693 individuals since its inception in November 2018. Since the UBC Giving Day in April 2021, they have provided services to approximately 205 individuals.
“Wellness on Wheels” by Foundry Kelowna
The Wellness on Wheels Mobile services launched in September 2021. The 39-foot retrofitted RV travels to Lake Country, Westbank First Nation, and West Kelowna, spending a day in each community, bringing barrier free mental health services to young people who might otherwise be unable to get the help they need due to distance or time.
With the support of the Blenk Family Fund they were able to pre-promote and pre-launch this new service with young people and with the service providers who support them. This ultimately lead to greater engagement and impact within the communities where they are offering this service.
During the first four months (September-December 2021), the Wellness on Wheels services have been successful in providing walk-in counselling, community and employment service navigation.
From the inception of services to December 2021:
- 116 Youth accessed drop in services
- 28 Youth made appointments for counselling or navigation supports
- 14 Youth accessed harm reduction supplies
Discovery College
Over the past two years the Blenk Family Fund also supported Discovery College. Discovery College is CMHA Kelowna’s approach to helping people increase their knowledge, skills, and abilities to manage life’s challenges with free resources. The money contributed helped with the development of free courses and their marketing.
The course “COPING WITH CURRENT EVENTS: PARENT, FAMILY & CAREGIVER TOOLKIT” was co-developed and co-delivered in late April, 2020. Eight live sessions were delivered with 176 individuals attending.
“I attended yesterday’s webinar “A Parent, Family, Caregiver Toolkit”…and it was EXCELLENT! It was definitely one of the most timely, practical, and interesting webinars I have ever attended.”
With support from the Blenk Family Fund the “What Really Works?” Podcast by Discovery College was launched in early 2020. Since then 41 episodes have been released, which you can browse and listen to below.
Each year our Wild One Run for youth mental health is a huge contributor and raises money for all of these projects supported by the Blenk Family Fund. Thank you to all of our previous participants and event donors. Mark your calendars: the 2022 Wild One Run will take place on Sunday, September 18th. More details and event registration will be shared very soon.
