A Victoria counselling centre for newcomers has received funding to provide tailored support for young people over the coming years.
The province announced the Vancouver Island Counselling Centre for Immigrants and Refugees (VICCIR) will get $130,000 this year to enhance its child and youth mental health services project. The centre will receive a total of $375,000 over three years for providing low-cost counselling help for immigrants and refugees.
The cost of services, which are offered in a client’s first language when possible, are based on someone’s income and can be free if they’re unable to afford it.
The centre’s director of services said the number of refugee and immigrant families settling on Vancouver Island is rapidly increasing, but most don’t speak English and are not able to access culturally or linguistically appropriate mental-health resources.
“This grant will allow our centre to continue to provide holistic mental health services to the entire family,” Adrienne Carter said in a news release.
One client of the centre said in the news release that as a member of the long-persecuted Hazara group in Afghanistan, they lost friends and classmates to explosions and have come close to self-harming. The client said connecting with a counsellor from the centre helped them immensely in starting their life in Canada.
“She helped me work through my past, found me an English tutor and helped improve my English,” the client said.
More than 700 newcomers from 80 countries have received trauma-informed and culturally sensitive counselling at the Blanshard Street centre since 2015.
Victoria-Beacon Hill MLA and Child Care Minister Grace Lore said her government’s funding will ensure young people get the support they need to survive and thrive in B.C.
Jennifer Whiteside, minister of mental health and addictions, said immigrants and refugees suffer devastating effects of displacement and trauma. The funding will get those individuals the “help they need and deserve in their own language and to get the best possible start on their journey to wellness.”
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