A Foothills organization is seeing unprecedented demand in its 24thyear in operation.
Inclusion Foothills, one of seven charities supported by the 2022 Western Wheel Cares campaign, is looking at a year of growth and opportunity with a significant uptick in demand for its services from families in the community.
“We’ve grown exponentially in this last year out of the need from parents, from their children, youth, adults looking for work,” said Orvella Small, executive director at Inclusion Foothills. “The most important thing is we’ve grown by 100 families and that was at the end of October.”
Small attributed a large portion of the growth to the situation society has been in during the pandemic where families weren’t able to get all of the supports they required and everyone was isolated.
In addition, finding employment amid those conditions proved to be a challenge and families are now looking at a more typical environment where individuals are comfortable getting out into the community.
“Typically we maybe have 50 new families in a year, but we’ve had over 100 already,” Small said. “So it’s a year of challenge and we’re ready to meet that challenge and continue to do what we need to do to support the families that we serve.”
Inclusion Foothills, which will hit the 25-year anniversary mark next October, works to provide individuals with disabilities and their families with support ranging from assistance planning, accessing resources to employment services.
New this year for the organization was the opening of its JOBZ centre in downtown Okotoks.
“That was pretty exciting for us because it’s an opportunity to serve in the community,” Small said. “And to have a face and to be recognized. We’ve got a great team of staff over there and Okotoks as a community has welcomed the centre, they’re pretty busy.”
Fundraising initiatives have also evolved with the times with Inclusion Foothills hosting its larger events at farmer’s markets or markets of any kind, including its Charitable Chairs event which grew from seven last year to 27 this year.
“We grew exponentially this year,” said Small of Charitable Chairs. “We had artists involved, businesses who just wanted to do it and give back and, of course, we get involved ourselves.”
Money raised through the Western Wheel Cares campaign will help the organization with several of its family support and community outreach programs, from one-to-one support, to its Sibshops and Step Up parent support.
With an increased demand for its services, the organization will need to increase its staff.
“The important thing to note is when we are supporting the youth and families, it is person-to-person,” Small said. “It’s something you need to do face-to-face.”
One-to-one support, for example, would be advocacy for families with children with disabilities agreements, families that have never had them and face a new diagnosis and don’t know where to go.
“We’ll help them navigate that system,” Small said. “It’s not easy for families.”
The support could also take the form of advocacy for inclusive education within the schools, helping families find solutions to questions that may arise.
“We don’t do it for them,” Small said. “We teach them because our parents need to be advocates for the rest of their child’s lives. The other piece that comes into that is the Sibshops program, in that the siblings also need care.
“That’s another way those funds are used, in order to support those siblings that don’t have special needs, but maybe need that little bit of extra care and support and attention that they maybe don’t quite get and the other thing is we teach them to be advocates for their brothers and sisters.”
In addition to Inclusion Foothills, the Sheep River Health Trust, Foothills Country Hospice, Foothills Advocacy in Motion, Okotoks Food Bank, Rowan House Society and Pound Rescue will benefit from the 2022 Western Wheel Cares campaign.
This year’s campaign runs from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31 and 100 per cent of donations go to the featured charities.
In 2021, Western Wheel Cares raised a record $72,107, pushing its 10-year total to $486,389.
Each week, the Wheel has featured one of the charities receiving money from the campaign.
To donate to Western Wheel Cares, mail cheques to Box 150, Okotoks, AB, T1S 2A2 or visit Western Wheel Cares - OkotoksToday.ca.
As well, you can drop by the Wheel office at 9 McRae St. from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed from noon to 1 p.m. for lunch) weekdays or call 587-325-6234.
