Jason's Lens: Establishing intentional partnerships to support our community

Collaboration. It’s the latest in a series of buzzwords floating around our community as we shift into a new phase of the pandemic, and the nonprofit sector looks to explore new opportunities. Simply defined, collaboration is “the action of working with someone to produce or create something.”

While the concept is fantastic, we need to demystify the word. It’s more than just saying “we should collaborate,” meeting a couple of times and calling it a day. Collaborations and partnerships need to align with the mandate of the organization. There needs to be intention behind the collective effort — intention that supports the mission and vision of each charity or company.

There is a wealth of opportunity in our community to strengthen partnerships, to work together to elevate the support in Wood Buffalo. From sharing funding opportunities to creating events and highlighting important issues, by working together, we can build up a collaborative network that can advocate for change.  

At Some Other Solutions, we are focusing our collaborative efforts on partnerships that can help streamline mental health support in our community, fill a gap in service and engage our community.

Collaboration starts in the schools

When it comes to child and youth mental health and wellness support, we are passionate about the importance of working closely with both the Public and Catholic School Systems in Wood Buffalo. While provincial funding has been reduced for school liaison workers and other supports, Some Other Solutions is committed to remaining in the schools. We want to support teachers by supporting the kids through our mentorship programs.

Through this program, our community outreach workers build positive relationships with school-aged children, building rapport and trust through various activities that focus on self-esteem, communication skills and coping skills.

We are pleased to be able to continue to support the schools and children for the year ahead thanks to a generous donation from our community.

Community partnerships to fill gaps in support

While we are excited to be heading back into the school system to support our children and youth, there are currently three other collaborations underway that are designed to ensure there is no gap in service in our community.

SOS is a proud member of a Mental Health Collaboration through the Red Cross, where 11 agencies represent the variety of different demographics we have here in Wood Buffalo. This includes everyone from seniors and youth, to the multicultural community, mental health service providers and educators and housing. The primary goal of this group is to ensure no one gets lost navigating the system. If there’s a client that comes to SOS and they can be best supported by another social nonprofit, through this collaboration I can directly connect them with the right agency to ensure they get the treatment they need. The client doesn’t need to do anything — they are automatically referred.

This collaboration is opening up dialogue between agencies that haven’t communicated much in the past. It’s breaking down barriers and creating a space for all of these important organizations to move forward with the same objective: to build a healthier community.

Part of a healthier community comes from supporting our seniors. Seniors in our community are struggling and while SOS has worked with St. Aiden’s Society for the past several years, our partnership has grown stronger in recent months as we work together to provide better support for this population. Through different disasters in our community and stress points, the unfortunate is happening to our seniors. We’ve seen them suffer from bullying, feelings of isolation and family members are taking advantage of them. 

We want to show seniors we are here and give rise to their voices. With St. Aiden’s, we work to make mental health counselling more affordable for those referrals. Often they can’t afford the services, but they need the support. Through case-by-case assessments, Some Other Solutions is working to ensure care is provided.  

We also know the past 16 months have been incredibly lonely for women in our community. Many mothers and nannies have dedicated their entire worlds to caring for children and ensuring they have everything they need. They’ve done this without giving a thought to their own mental wellbeing, and we are starting to see the impact of that. We are seeing more and more women accessing our counselling services who are, quite simply, burnt out.

SOS is excited to be partnering with the Hub Family Resource Centre to provide a space for moms. This new Mindfulness for Moms program will take place at The Hub, which has its very own recreational facility and childcare support. Which means the children will be taken care of while moms and other caregivers are given the time and space they need to fulfill their own wellbeing.

All of these intentional collaborations are designed to make a profound impact in our community. Through these partnerships with Some Other Solutions, we are working to fill a gap in support for those who need it most, and continue to elevate the conversation around mental health in our community.