VICCIR COVID-19 Impact Report

vancouver island counselling centre for immigrants and refugees (viccir)

COVID-19 IMPACT REPORT

VICCIR is located on the unceded Coast Salish Territory of the Lekwungen and W ̱ SÁNEĆ nations. The First Peoples have been here since time immemorial and their history in this area is long and rich. All settlers are indebted to them.

This report is written at the time of the discovery of the many unmarked graves of children in the grounds of former residential schools across Canada. This tragedy is a reminder of the injustices done to Indigenous children, their families, and communities. We are committed to doing our part for a better present and future informed by truth and reconciliation.

Cover photo – A Heart of Many Colours We received this spectacular gift from Veronica Cooper. A Heart of Many Colours was created by artist Tracy Yerrell, who gifted it to Habitat for Humanity Victoria for their fundraiser ‘Open a Door to a Brighter Future’. Veronica first came to know about VICCIR when she interviewed Adrienne Carter in 2018 for CHEK News. The artist, Tracy Yerrell, says this about A Heart of Many Colours: The Red Door sends a message of unconditional love, safety, pride, and positive energy. It provides protection of the home and chases away evil spirits. The stars in the heavens are a representation of self–reliance and resourcefulness and of divine guidance and protection. The five-pointed star is a sacred symbol of oneness representing the human spirits connection with the four elements—air, water, fire, and earth—bonding the human spirit to Mother Nature. The faces of humankind look out at us. Bound together in the light of adversity, the strength and tenacity of mankind is on display. At the base is a heart of many colours, working together as one.

Please note the cover photo was taken in June 2021 after COVID restrictions were reduced.

Photo credits – Phil Rossner, Mariana Ramos, Times Colonist.

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Introduction In March 2020, VICCIR closed its offices to the public in the midst of the first major lockdown of the COVID-19 crisis. All of our time and effort was spent on keeping in contact with VICCIR clients and ensuring that counselling was available for existing, new and returning clients and our wider community. Usually around March we start compiling the VICCIR Annual report in preparation for the annual AGM. In 2020 there was no AGM and no Annual Report for 2019 – our focus the greatest health crisis, both physical and mental, the world has seen.

This short report is intended to provide information on what was happening at VICCIR in the lead up to the pandemic, and how we as an organization responded to the crisis, which is not over yet.

Everyone in our organization demonstrated courage and resilience in the face of the unknown, and we are proud to tell the story so far of VICCIR’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Adrienne Carter VICCIR Director of Services

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Pre-Pandemic: January 2019 to February 2020 2019 got off to a great start for VICCIR. In January we officially became a federally registered charity in Canada, which opened the doors to a much wider array of funding. Here are some of the highlights from 2019 and early 2021.

In March, VICCIR was extremely fortunate to be chosen as the designated charity at the March meeting of 100+ Women Who Care Victoria.

We gratefully received a very big cheque for $30,000.00 which enabled us to begin paying VICCIR interpreters who, until then, had been offering their services pro bono.

Also in March VICCIR Counsellors Dr Soraya Centeno and Ana Maria Pavon were part of a panel discussion on Growing Up as a Refugee Youth which was part of Ideafest 2019, the University of Victoria’s week-long festival of research, art and innovation.

Leadership Victoria chose VICCIR Director of Services Adrienne Carter as the winner in the “Getting Started in our Community” category sponsored by Vancity for the 2019 Victoria Community Leadership Awards. Adrienne was recognized for her outstanding contribution to the Greater Victoria communities with the other award winners at a ceremony at Government House in May.

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VICCIR held its AGM on June 25. VICCIR members gathered at St Peter Lakehill to celebrate the successes of the past year and look forward with optimism to the future.

We launched a pilot project with ICA, making a VICCIR counsellor available on a Monday morning at ICA to both staff and clients. This project ran successfully until the pandemic forced the closure of the VICCIR and ICA offices.

Adrienne and VICCIR Counsellor Ana Pavon attended the North American Refugee Health Conference in Toronto Best Practices for Mental Health Assistance to Immigrants and Refugees where Adrienne presented the VICCIR Model.

In October 2019 VICCIR published the 2018 Annual Report.

We fully expected to do the same for 2019.

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At the beginning of November, a team of VICCIR staff led by Adrienne Carter travelled to Calgary to offer a two-day training on Group Therapy to more than 35 participants from 9 different organizations in Calgary working with refugees hosted by the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Calgary Region and the Mosaic Refugee Health Clinic.

The two biggest changes for VICCIR came at the end of 2019. In November we celebrated being chosen as one of 29 organizations receiving a three-year Community Counselling Grant from the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions. This grant meant that VICCIR could now begin compensating counsellors, many of whom had been offering their services pro bono since 2015. This was something for us to celebrate as a community.

The other big change was VICCIR’s move to its new home in Downtown Victoria, on the ground floor of the Quality Inn. Opening day was Thursday January 2, an exciting start to what promised to be a year of new adventures.

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On Friday February 21 more than 100 people gathered at the VICCIR Open house to celebrate our new space and meet VICCIR counsellors, interpreters and supporters. We were honoured to have Mayor Lisa Helps open the event and celebrated with speeches, song and cake!

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What came next, however, was not what any of us expected.

On March 18 2020 we closed our office in accordance with COVID-19 restrictions and sent out the following message in English, Arabic and Spanish:

VICCIR has now moved all of our services online. We will continue to support our current clients as well as new clients through online counselling sessions. We will be in touch with all of our clients to ensure they have this information and they know how to stay connected to VICCIR.

The VICCIR office will be closed to the public from Wednesday March 18 until further notice. We will miss seeing everyone in person but want to be sure that we all stay healthy in these challenging times. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us by email or phone.

Best wishes

Adrienne Carter & VICCIR counsellors, interpreters and staff

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The COVID-19 Context for Refugees, Immigrants and Newcomers From Dr Theresa Tam, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada in From Risk to Resilience: An Equity Approach to COVID-19

From Victoria Foundation, Victoria’s Vital Signs 2020 Between February and May 2020 … 30% of recent immigrants in BC lost their job. Recent immigrants — those who have had permanent resident status in Canada for less than 10 years — experienced three times the job loss of more established immigrants and non-immigrants. Whether recent or established immigrants, women were more likely to lose their jobs than men, who were more likely to experience cuts in their hours but keep their jobs.

While the COVID-19 pandemic affects us all, the health impacts have been worse for seniors, essential workers, racialized populations, people living with disabilities and women. We need to improve the health, social and economic conditions for these populations to achieve health equity and to protect us all from the threat of COVID-19 and future pandemics.

In June 2020, 62% of British Columbians reported concern for the health of vulnerable family members during COVID-19, as well as difficulty accessing health care (33%), worsening mental health (47%), extreme stress (18%), and greater sleep loss (23%). Among youth, aged 18-29 years, 55% reported decreased mental health and 24% reported increased difficulty accessing counselling services due to COVID-19, compared to 12% in the general population.

… the severity of illness due to COVID-19 may also be influenced by access to treatment ... While universal in principle, access to health care has been identified as a challenge for a number of groups in Canada that may face greater exposure and susceptibility to COVID-19, including populations experiencing homelessness, racialized and Indigenous populations, immigrant populations, migrant workers, temporary foreign workers, people with disabilities, and populations living with low-income. Accessing relevant, meaningful and culturally safe health care is a challenge for many groups who experience stigma and discrimination due to implicit and conscious biases, a lack of respect for and understanding of historic and social determinants that influence health and stigmatizing organizational cultures.

21% visible minority respondents felt that harassment based on race, ethnicity, or skin colour occurred sometimes or often in their neighbourhood, compared to 10% of the general population.

18% visible minority respondents felt an increase in the frequency of discriminatory incidents, compared to 6% of the general population. 27% visible minority respondents felt very or somewhat unsafe walking alone at night, compared to 15% of the general population.

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Pandemic: March to December 2020 In the face of all the uncertainties of the pandemic, VICCIR had to move fast to adapt and ensure continuing mental health support for existing, new and returning clients. In April 2020 Adrienne sent the following message to the VICCIR community:

In response to the crisis, VICCIR developed some new programs including online courses for parents and caregivers as well as mental wellness orientation sessions for large groups of employees of partner organizations and community members.

On March 18 it became necessary to close our doors temporarily until the virus passed. We took our work online and within a day or so our clients continued to receive regular weekly counselling.

In October, we welcomed a new member of staff, Abeer Smadi, VICCIR’s Social and Community Services Worker. We benefitted from COVID-19 funding to support this role which provides practical support to clients as well as coordinating VICCIR volunteers.

We are using face to face sessions on Zoom that include the client, the counsellor and the interpreter whenever that is necessary. Our counsellors became very adept and we discovered that even art therapy can be offered online.

Two of our counsellors with considerable online expertise trained the rest of us. Some of us were already adept at using online services, but for many of us it was more novel. But we were fast learners and became fully functional within a couple of days.

In November we decided to cancel our 2020 AGM and our members responded generously by paying their dues despite the fact that we were not meeting.

At the end of a very different year, we asked the VICCIR community to join us and celebrate by giving. We provided VICCIR clients with gift cards to provide some extra support in these challenging times. We were fortunate to receive a gift from the generous donors to the Times Colonist Christmas Fund to top up the generous support from our donors.

At the same time, ongoing supervision for both counsellors and interpreters is also taking place successfully online. We have even managed to organize regular online staff meetings. We are once again ready to receive new referrals, and they will be assigned to available counsellors.

We did not know that the temporary closure would last for more than a year and continues at the time of writing this report.

For everyone, March and April were spent grappling with the new reality of the pandemic. As ‘the new normal’ emerged, VICCIR adapted and responded to what was a growing mental health crisis amongst an already marginalized population which was disproportionately disadvantaged by the pandemic in all areas of their lives.

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January to April 2021: The Numbers Tell The Story ... Surging Demand Baseline as of Oct 1 2019

Nov 1 2019 to Oct 31 2020 One year

Nov 1 2020 to Apr 30 2021

Number of referrals

150

187

160

Total number of individual, couples, or family counselling sessions delivered

1680

1831

1245

Total number of individuals who have accessed individual, couples, or family counselling sessions

140

147

139

Number of individuals who received individual, couples, or family counselling who had not accessed counselling programs previously

120

132

88

Number of group counselling sessions or psychoeducational workshops delivered *

6

23

23

Total number of individuals who have accessed group counselling or psychoeducational workshops *

48

670

206

Number of individuals who have accessed group counselling or psychoeducational workshops who had not accessed counselling programs previously *

40

625

119

Six months

* When we originally applied for the Community Counselling Fund grant, we were planning for small, in-person groups. The needs of our clients and the community during the pandemic has led to VICCIR staff facilitating much larger, online groups.

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Looking Ahead

As you can see from the chart opposite, VICCIR has successfully met a huge increase in demand in the past six months. The number of referrals from November to April is close to the number for the whole of year 1. The number of sessions delivered in the past six months is just under 70% of the number VICCIR delivered from November 2019 to October 2020. The total number of individuals who have accessed counselling in the past six months is only 8 fewer than from November 2019 to October 2020. This means that demand for our services has almost doubled in the past six months.

While much of our focus is currently on remaining financially viable, we continue to provide mental health support to those who are most in need as we have always done. In addition, we are working on a new project, creating a team of trained Health and Cultural Ambassadors to address issues of stigma around mental health in different communities. We are also taking the opportunity to reflect on how VICCIR as an organization can continue to integrate anti-racism into our work and our approach. We carry on providing training on a variety of topics to VICCIR counsellors and interpreters. Though times may be difficult, the work VICCIR does is vital and it will continue.

In the face of rising demand, we decided to stick with our model of not creating waiting lists and removing access barriers to mental health support. Given the scale of the mental health crisis, particularly with our clients who are disproportionately disadvantaged, we felt we had no other choice than to do what we have always done, which is provide service. The impact on our budget has been significant, as we have spent our available funds much quicker than we had planned. We are now faced with having to reduce service in order to remain financially viable as well as try to identify new sources of revenue and funding. We have asked our counsellors to review their case load with a view to reducing it by 50% in the coming months. In this way we hope to maintain service and keep the waiting list to a minimum.

This is the situation in which we find ourselves as we close this report. The VICCIR board of directors is working hard to ensure that VICCIR remains financially viable in the face of these challenging times.

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Financial Statement for the year ending December 31 2021

Revenues Federal Government

$30,744.00

Provincial Government

$143,527.00

Municipal Government

$9,000.00

Foundation and Other Grants

$137,072.00

Client Payments

$14,235.00

Donations

$15,464.00

Interest

$468.00

Fundraising Events

$1,122.00

Sundry

$3,580.00

In-kind Services

$125,960.00 $481,172.00

Expenses Contract Services

$180,778.00

Payroll Costs

$68,757.00

Premises Rent

$43,620.00

Insurance

$2,545.00

Equipment Purchases

$2,594.00

G.S.T. Unrecoverable

$2,466.00

Office

$2,817.00

Bank Charges and Service Fees

$1,274.00

Telephone and Communications $3,190.00 Repairs and Maintenance

$1,039.00

Client Support

$1,175.00

In-kind Services

$125,960.00 $436,215.00

Excess of Revenues over Expenses

$44,975.00

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Thank you to counsellors, interpreters, staff, volunteers, board directors, donors & funders.

2020 was a challenging year for everyone, and we know that refugees, immigrants and newcomers were disproportionately disadvantaged by the pandemic, which had a severe effect on their mental health. We want to take this opportunity to thank the individuals and organizations who supported VICCIR in 2020.

We received over $15,000 from private donors, more than we ever have in the past. We so appreciate the support, which makes a real difference in the lives of VICCIR clients and means we are able to sustain the vital work we do. A special thank you goes to our 15 monthly donors who contribute $485 a month, totalling over $5000 per year.

We are also fortunate to receive funding from a variety of organizations, public and private. In 2020 we received support from: • The Emergency Community Support Fund from the Federal Government.

• The Community Counselling Grant and Community Gaming Grant from the Provincial Government.

• The Strategic Plan Grant from the City of Victoria.

• The Rapid Relief Fund from the Times Colonist, Victoria Foundation, Jawl Foundation and their donors.

• The Community Recovery Program from the Victoria Foundation.

• The Victoria Foundation, Vancouver Foundation, Lobstick Foundation and Zonta Club of Victoria.

Thank you too to all the volunteers who assist VICCIR in many areas of our work and of course our counselling and administrative staff. We could not sustain our work without the support of our whole community – Thank you!

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We are fortunate to partner with many organizations doing important work

• All Greater Victoria School Districts • AMSSA (Affiliation of Multicultural Societies and Service Agencies of BC) • Anglican Diocese of British Columbia Refugee Program • BC Ministry for Children and Family Development • BC Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions • Central Vancouver Island Multicultural Society (CVIMS) • Child and Youth Mental Health • Community Advisory Board (CAB) • Connections Place Mental Wellness Community • Cowichan Intercultural Society (CIS) • Cridge Centre for the Family • Foundry Victoria/Victoria Youth Clinic • Greater Victoria Local Immigration Partnership (GVLIP) • Here Magazine • Leadership Victoria Community Action Program • MOSAIC, Vancouver • RAMA Isla (Radical Action with Migrants in Agriculture on the Island) • Royal Roads University • The Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria (ICA) • University of Victoria and Immigrant Family Studies Lab • University of Victoria School of Social Work • University of Victoria, City University and Yorkville University • Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre Society (VIRCS) • VIHA detox support programs • VIHA Public Health

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