THE 6th Annual Mental Health Storytelling Event Partnerships
The 2023 annual event welcomed two very special organizations to share their incredible work at the storytelling event. Both places do meaningful work in the community to support mental health with access to resources in counselling, peer support, and community programming.
Mental Health Recovery Partners (MHRP – South Island) Janine Theobald, Executive Director and Marion Gibson, Program Manager.
The Saanich Peninsula Youth Clinic Grace Warren, Peer Health Educator Program Coordinator and Ashleigh Fletcher, Volunteer Coordinator for the Youth Action Team.
THE 155th Annual Saanich Fair 2023
The Connection Project Society hosted a booth at the Saanich Fair over the long weekend. People came and shared personal stories, struggles, successes, and humanness with our community of volunteers. This was both uplifting and inspiring to take part in and of course, we made some incredible connections for future collaborations and opportunities for mental wellbeing. This was true community outreach, thanks to all who stopped by.
Connection Project Speakers doing a radio appearance on “Re-Threading Madness.”
Moderator Emily Olsen, Connection Project panelists Kirsten Mar, Caleb Beyers, Trevor Botkin and Karen Lee White spoke about mental-health and the importance of shared storytelling and healing within community.
The Crisp is an annual community arts festival hosted on S,DÁYES, Pender Island during the apple harvest. Artists, Storytellers, Poets, and Musicians gather together to celebrate all the very best of community to share knowledge, friendship, art, music, and food.
Saanich Peninsula Youth Clinic
The Saanich Peninsula Youth Clinic operates at Peninsula Medical in Sidney on Thursday nights from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. Providing a walk-in health clinic for youth aged 12 – 24 years old, it involves Family Physicians, mental health Counsellors, a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, as well as a youth worker and First Nations elder. The clinic is a collaboration between many partners including the Ministry of Child & Family Development, the Saanich Peninsula Hospital and Healthcare Foundation, Sidney by the Sea Rotary, the Youth Justice Committee, and several other community groups. A rotation of physicians offer their services after their own clinic hours and a dedicated team of local youth volunteers help build and maintain a ‘youth friendly environment’.
The clinic grew out of the work of the Saanich Peninsula Local Action Team (part of the Child and Youth Mental Health and Substance Youth Collaborative) and a large percentage of patient visits are for anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and substance use. Running the clinic takes a tremendous amount of effort and collaboration.
Peninsula News Review Article – Hugo Wong Mar. 12, 2018 Peninsula Youth Clinic re-opens in a new location.
“We are very thankful to Emily Olsen and the Connection project for opening the dialogue about mental health in our community. Through your attendance at this event, you are directly supporting the ongoing work of the Saanich Peninsula Youth Clinic so we can continue to provide physical and mental health services to youth in our community. Thank you!”
– Dr. Kate Evans, Medical Director of the Youth Clinic
Donate Directly to the Youth Clinic HERE
The Connection Project 