A Victoria charity is doing everything it can to stay above water after a loss in funding this past year.
The Vancouver Island Counselling Centre for Immigrants and Refugees (VICCIR) has been offering counselling to migrants since 2015, helping them to work through the trauma, isolation and resettlement challenges that often come with displacement.
“The people we serve don’t have any other place to go, they are already traumatized, they are anxious, they are depressed. They have to adapt to a new country,” said Adrienne Carter, the active executive director and one of the founders of VICCIR.
“They’re also very resilient. Often with a few sessions, they can start standing on their feet.”
VICCIR announced in a press release Wednesday Feb. 12 that they were "facing potential closure due to a lack of funding."
Carter says VICCIR has always struggled with funding, and in recent months most organizations serving immigrants and refugees have lost funding. VICCIR had hoped to receive a new grant from Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada; upon their rejection, they’ve now had to find creative ways to keep their doors open.
“We are struggling, but at the same time, our services are going on without interruption,” Carter said.
“The way we cope with it is several of the counsellors and others decided to take a cut in their income, so several of us are working pro bono.”
Carter says many of VICCIR's 114 total staff are currently working on reduced pay, some even for free. Carter herself came out of retirement to help VICCIR through trying times and is working as executive director for free. Along with Carter staff throughout the company including the registered counsellors and interpreters have voluntarily taken pay cuts.
For Carter, the work is too important to stop with or without funding.
"This is a life-changing offering. To be able to have ongoing counselling, it means a great deal to people, especially to those who don't speak [english],” she said.
“We started without money; all of us for the first four years worked free of charge. Then we started to get grants, and we were able to grow.”
Today VICCIR, serves clients from more than 90 countries, some of whom have experienced war, poverty and even torture at home. In 2024 they provided 2739 counselling sessions to immigrants and refugees. So, while funding for these services may be decreasing, demand is not and if people are willing to do the work it seems as though VICCIR will carry on with whatever resources they have.
“We're going to continue. We're not going anywhere. We've got to keep this service,” said Carter.
VICCIR has been able to acquire some smaller grants, and the willingness of their staff to take salary cuts has kept them going, but the biggest contribution has come from funds raised since they announced their struggles in a press release last week in which they called for community support.
“Since we started this fundraising blitz, donations have grown,” Carter says.
“Everybody needs to be a part of assisting us. It’s not just one grant, it’s the community that also needs to assist us, and they’ve been responding to our call.”
Despite their struggles, and with a community rallying behind them, VICCIR has no plans to close its doors anytime soon, but Carter recognizes that the current model cannot last forever.
“We are going to keep going, but we still need that funding because we won’t be sustainable in the long run.”
