It has been an exciting and busy 2018 at Canadian Mental Health Association Alberta Northwest Region (CMHA ANWR). In 2018 CMHA celebrated our centennial year. We attended the 100 year celebration in Montreal at CMHA National Conference. The conference had keynote speakers from around the globe who have had huge impacts in their Countries as well as Globally. We also enjoyed presentations from some of the strongest Canadian leaders paving the way in Mental Health. We came back feeling excited and eager to plan and roll out the wealth of information we brought home to improve our community.
In August of 2018 we recruited a new executive Director Randy Arsenault. He brought over 20 years of healthcare administration to our team. His gentle, down earth and assertive approach to challenges makes him the perfect leader for our local CMHA. After all, good mental health in the work place is mightily important to us. Over the years we have grown from just a few staff and are now over 75 strong!
What we do.
Our Vision is Mentally Healthy People in a healthy society. It is our mission to facilitate access to the resources people require to maintain and improve mental health and community integrating, to build reliance and support recovery from mental illness.
At CMHA ANWR we offer 7 programs to Grande Prairie. Mobile Addictions Outreach is one of our busiest program, we work with high-risk individuals at the street level and meet and support them where they are at. Besides maintaining accreditation for our largest program, Support for Persons with Disabilities we have started working towards becoming accredited as a whole. The SPD program offers care for people who cannot live independently, in some cases 24/7 hour care is required. Our Intensive Case Management, Housing First Program has remained strong in supporting homeless individuals with multiple barriers find and maintain living space as well as individualized life planning & training and regular visits. Our Hub Resource Centre, located in our apartment building Willow Place has continued to deliver fun activities to the community such as meal prep, cooking, arts, crafts, bingo, board games, coffee, seasonal feasts, field trips and more! Willow Place is a 57 unit affordable apartment building that CMHA ANWR owns and operates. The city of Grande Prairie owns the land, and leases it to us for $1 year! Thank you City of Grand Prairie! We offer a course called Living Life to the Fullest. It is an interactive course designed to help you understand your feelings, thoughts and behaviors and what to do about them.
Lastly we applied for and won a RFP for Permanent Supportive Housing two-year pilot project managed by the City of Grande Prairie. The project has just got the green light to go full bore ahead! We have taken over Parkside Inn to provide a safe and warm space for people who have a hard time staying housed due to mental health issues. We are so excited to support and meet people where they are at and to provide an around the clock friendly and supportive community with an expert mental health team.
We have had some amazing support in 2018. Thank you Grande Prairie Auto Group for the donation of a Van, for all the money you have raised for us, as well as the donations of items from Costco over the holiday season. Your support has been amazing in 2018, and we cannot thank you enough. Thank you, Atco Electric for volunteering at our holiday feasts, and for the donations you have raised for us. Thank you Prairie Disposal for your big donation!! Thank you Medicine Shoppe for your donations. Lastly thank you to all our sponsors at our 2018 Masquerade Gala; Big Country 93.1, Pomeroy Hotel, On Rock, Grande Prairie West Dental, Bee’s Photography, Neil & Associates, Sports Wear Plus, Wesland Insurance, Tidewater, McNabb Lucuk, Saltmedia and all the individual volunteers and supporters.