AT-A-GLANCE
Adults who cannot afford to pay typical private therapy rates and are not eligible for public services (or face long waits for such services).
Community Counselling Fund
What This Grantee Is Doing for Community Counselling
Moving Forward Family Services (MFFS) offers timely “low cost or no cost” (free for those with low income) counselling for those who cannot afford to pay typical private therapy rates and are not eligible for public services (or face long waits for such services). There are no restrictions based on gender, age, geography, religion or presenting issues. No one is turned away based on their financial circumstances. Counselling is done virtually and clients can access the service from anywhere in the province.
To meet its clients’ counselling needs, MFFS adopts a mentorship agency approach – enlisting the services of counselling or social work interns and new graduates beginning private practice. This unique community-university/college engagement model with an open mandate allows MFFS to complement the existing public services (as opposed to competing with them for the same pools of traditional funding), thus reducing these services’ pressures (reducing wait lists, being able to apply early intervention services as opposed to acute/crisis care services). MFFS is committed to building and contributing to healthy, healing communities.
Apart from counselling in English and French, MFFS’ interns and counsellors can provide in minority languages: American Sign Language, Arabic, Bengali, Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Croatian, Farsi, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hokkien, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Malay, Mandarin, Polish, Punjabi, Romanian, Serbian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Urdu.
Quotes
“They directed me to a counsellor who is from the same culture. The same religion even. So she knows what I am talking about. The same language. It is hard when you are talking about your emotions to speak in a different language even if your language is good. Still, when you want to express your emotions deeply it is easier to use your own language.” - MFFS Client "As this was my first time doing anything similar to counselling, I was unsure of what to expect. But I can truly say, it was one of the most beneficial things I could have done for myself." - MFFS Client