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Envision reflects on the past year

The Envision Counselling and Support Centre continues to be an important service for many in the southeast. The organization held its annual general meeting on June 19 at Affinity Credit Union’s Estevan branch.
Envision

The Envision Counselling and Support Centre continues to be an important service for many in the southeast.

The organization held its annual general meeting on June 19 at Affinity Credit Union’s Estevan branch. Board members, staff and others gathered for a recap on activities, to elect new board members and to look ahead to the coming months. “Every year, I can’t commend the staff enough for the time and energy and commitment they put into our organization and our clients. I think that over the years our reputation has really grown, and we’ve been sought-after services in the southeast,” said Daku.

Envision also completed a new strategic plan last year. The end result was strategic priorities, accompanied by actions, setting the stage for the next three years of Envision’s operations and board governance. One of the first strategic actions was to do a needs assessment that will result in the agency sharing the story of the southeast, with indicators relating to the strengths and areas for improvement within the service area.

The annual meeting also served as an opportunity to look at the programs Envision offers to the region.

Envision had 3,045 counselling sessions in 2017-18, which was up slightly from the 3,025 the previous year. They had 67 young people go through the children exposed to violence program, 284 people attend the family intervention program, 399 through the interpersonal violence and abuse program, and 141 through the family support program.

Envision also made 276 presentations. Sixty-one per cent of the clients last year were female and 39 per cent were male.

Two board members completed their six-year terms on the board. Tami Scott, who was the organization’s board chair, and Karen Hirsch have wrapped up their terms.

Bill Holliday of Weyburn and Angela Burgess of Estevan are now on the board, which has nine members.

Tracey Kiliwnik of Weyburn is the chairperson. Brian Pilloud of Estevan will be the vice-chair and also the treasurer. Kristin Dupuis of Estevan will be the secretary. Members at large include Roni-Sue Coulter of Estevan, Lana Perrault of Estevan, Garth Mryglod of Carlyle and Tana Cugnet of Weyburn.

The Ministry of Justice and Social Services both attended the annual general meeting, and the Ministry of Justice gave a presentation on the hub community mobilization initiative, in which a committee will meet to address situations facing individuals or families with elevated risk factors.

Financial statements showed that the agency posted a deficit of $66,000 during the fiscal year that ended March 31. They hope the government will be able to come through with some additional dollars, but Daku said Envision is able to sustain its present programming.

Daku noted there are two grants that they hadn’t received their final payment for when the fiscal year came to an end. Envision was also the partner for this year’s “Savour the Southeast”, and the revenues for that event had not come in when financial statements were released.