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Kama Taylor from Libbie Young Centre
Posted by Stephanie Dobson
On September 13, 2010 Kama Taylor gave an interesting talk to our Club about what the Libbie Young Centre does in our community and about its exciting future plans. This is a dynamic organization that focuses on serving clients with mental health issues. The founder of the organization was a prominent Lloydminster woman named Libbie Young. She had a vision of seeing people who had mental health issues come back to their community to have a place to go after their in-patient treatment was completed. She wanted to see them reintegrate into their own community instead of being isolated from family and friends a long way from home. She was instrumental in bringing this vision to fruition. The Centre continues to have the same mandate today.
They offer a number of programs. One is a Residential Program where individuals can reside at the Centre. In the alternative they offer a Supported Living Program to those individuals who would like to access the Centre's programs but who don't live at the Centre. The focus of this program is education, peer support, and recreation.
Any individual living with mental illness can access the Centre's Employment Readiness Program to support their reintegration into the working world. Kama's expertise is in the Community Education Program at the Centre, where she spends all of her time and energy educating the public about mental illness. Her role is to reduce the stigma and increase the awareness and education around mental illness among our population. She did a great job at our Club in this role!
Where Kama really came alive and excited is when she told us about the Centre's future development. They have been fundraising for a long time to build a new centre where they will increase the number of individuals they can assist manyfold. They currently are housed in a duplex and have 5 beds available for their Residential Program. The new facility will have 20 1-bedroom suites! That's a huge increase! In addition to these beds, they will also have a program delivery area, a resource centre with computers and workout machines, and a common area with kitchen and dining areas (besides the kitchens in each suite).
They purchased the land a year ago, and they expect to break ground in the Spring of 2011. We are very excited to see the future developments of the Centre. You are a valuable resource to our community and ought to be commended for all the work that you do. Congratulations, and thank you for coming to speak with our group, Kama.
Any individual living with mental illness can access the Centre's Employment Readiness Program to support their reintegration into the working world. Kama's expertise is in the Community Education Program at the Centre, where she spends all of her time and energy educating the public about mental illness. Her role is to reduce the stigma and increase the awareness and education around mental illness among our population. She did a great job at our Club in this role!
Where Kama really came alive and excited is when she told us about the Centre's future development. They have been fundraising for a long time to build a new centre where they will increase the number of individuals they can assist manyfold. They currently are housed in a duplex and have 5 beds available for their Residential Program. The new facility will have 20 1-bedroom suites! That's a huge increase! In addition to these beds, they will also have a program delivery area, a resource centre with computers and workout machines, and a common area with kitchen and dining areas (besides the kitchens in each suite).
They purchased the land a year ago, and they expect to break ground in the Spring of 2011. We are very excited to see the future developments of the Centre. You are a valuable resource to our community and ought to be commended for all the work that you do. Congratulations, and thank you for coming to speak with our group, Kama.