A new program for newcomers getting $25,000 from the Bell Let’s Talk community fund which provides grants to grassroots community organizations on the front lines of changing lives every day.
Bell Let’s Talk contributing $25,000 to a new program to help newcomers with mental health struggles through its community fund. pic.twitter.com/IMzcwPYUNQ
— Tamara Steele (@tamarasteele1) November 1, 2018
Bell Let’s Talk president Mary Deacon tells CHSJ News they these organizations know how to stretch a dollar.
“That’s why we created the community fund so that we can get more resources into the front line in organizations like the Saint John Y.” Deacon said.
The program is called Settling Strongly and it pairs recently arrived refugees with mental health practitioners for a 6-week trauma-informed therapy group.
Kay Kanyandula is a family enhancement and crisis worker and he leads the men’s group where they have a drumming circle.
“Drumming circles in the Indigenous community allows for people to centre themselves and the drumming provides the same rhythms as the heart does,” Kanyandula said.
Y President and CEO Shilo Boucher say 372 newcomers arrived in Saint John this year, 8 families have been reunited and so far this year 27 new babies have been born.
Y President Shilo Boucher says 392 newcomers arrived in #SaintJohn this year, 8 families were reunited and 27 babies were born. pic.twitter.com/gfmTStVWcw
— Tamara Steele (@tamarasteele1) November 1, 2018
This announcement is being delivered in English and Arabic for the newcomers attending today. pic.twitter.com/zmvkP3NidI
— Tamara Steele (@tamarasteele1) November 1, 2018
