June 15, 2009 - District of Mission

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that it would be beneficial to hold a Regional Affordable Housing Meeting an estimated three
times a year to continue to build and strengthen networking capabilities between districts in the
Fraser Valley, as well as remain current and informed on shared social issues in these
communities.
Section 2: Current Projects
Project I — School based presentations on mental illness and stigma reduction
Currently, I am working on bringing a presenter into the Mission School District. The focus of
these presentations will be on mental illness, decreasing stigma and increasing awareness for
grade 10 students. This past Sept-Dec 2008, I was involved in an initiative through the Ministry
of Child and Family Development in partnership with the University of the Fraser Valley to hire
a student to develop a presentation aimed at grade 10 students focused around mental illness and
the reduction of stigma associated with mental illness. The successful candidate was Ms. Jessie
Kergan, an undergraduate student in the Bachelor of Social Work Program at UFV. Jessie was
funded to develop a presentation and deliver it to all Secondary Schools in Chilliwack, including
Sto:lo alternate and CHANCE alternate schools. The presentations have been met with huge
success. Thus, I am working on bringing them to Mission for Mission's grade 10 students.
To manage this task of implementation, I am facilitating the following three organizations:
Fraser House, Mission MCFD and the Mission School District. Fraser House has been very
helpful in coordinating presentation dates with some of the local schools and I have successfully
secured funding from them in the amount of $200 to pay for the services of Ms. Kergan's time
and effort. I have asked Ms. Kergan to draft an invoice and we are in the process of seeking out
additional funding for additional presentations.
I presented this initiative to Mission Ministry of Child and Family Development who are
supporting the presentations by offering a Masters level clinician at the end of each high school
presentation to both answer any student questions beyond Jessie's knowledge level and create
positive ties between the Ministry and the students.
I also presented this initiative to the Mission Education Committee who have asked me to
present at both the next School Board meeting and the next Principals' meeting.
Project 2 — Electronic Central Resource Bureau
Margaret Hardy of Demal Services Inc. has been engaged by the District of Mission to develop
and pilot an electronic "Central Resource Bureau" of community resources for the District of
Mission and surrounding areas. Margaret is working with the Central Resource Bureau Social
Development Commission sub committee. I have been meeting with Margaret and assisting her
in moving along with the necessary steps to develop and get this website up and running
Mission is continuing to move forward with the 'Go Mission' Project aimed at developing an on
line Central Resource Bureau in an accessible format to promote inclusion and bridge the
P.O. Box 20, 8645 Stave Lake Street, Mission, B.C. V2V 4L9
Phone (604) 820.3752 Fax (604) 826.1363 G (604) 820-3715 Web Site: www.city.mission.bc.ca E-mail: khargreaves@mission.ca