Connecting our Community Through Stories

We are on holiday until January 9! 

Please join us Friday, January 9,11-1, in the SIMS classroom next to the Boardroom, to welcome our Restorative Justice Team and continue the conversation about our youth, seeking to better understand their world as well as offering hope for their future.

Hope you can join us. 

And, until then – Happy Holidays! 

Twelve joined this ASK Salt Spring gathering to welcome David Norget and to learn about the Mental Wellness Initiative (MWI). In his Territorial Acknowledgement, he spoke of his understanding of the First Nations’ teachings about relationship, respect, and connection. It is these learnings that drive the work of the Mental Wellness Initiative. 

After we each had an opportunity to introduce ourselves, David spoke briefly of our community’s grief at the recent and sudden loss of Gloria Hunter – a former Mental Wellness Initiative Goodwill Ambassador and an example of a life full of care, connections, and deep relationships. He spoke also of his joy watching community groups partnering to create a Culture of Care (Elements of Building a Culture of Care – the Process is One of the Projects in our community. 

The Mental Wellness Initiative sees the sharing of our stories as a foundation for mental wellness. Our lived experiences and those stories we tell about ourselves allow connection and understanding. When we tell and listen to stories, that connection grows. Differing from the colonial drive toward separation, the Mental Wellness Initiative finds that a community’s unique set of the stories connect and heal us. 

The Mental Wellness Initiative, fueled by caring volunteers, has created partnerships with other organizations, all working together to instill care throughout our community. This list is long and includes many others in addition to:

In addition to these partnerships, the Mental Wellness Initiative supports a variety of programs which include:

  • Mental Health First Aid, begun by the Salt Spring Community Health Society and recently passed to the Mental Wellness Initiative, has trained over 120 Salt Springers to recognize, understand, and find help for those in stress. Stay tuned for future Mental Health First Aid courses, usually advertised through the Salt Spring Exchange or Salt Spring Facebook groups.(Contact ninjaheartwarrior@gmail.com for more information.)
  • The pilot Community Peer Support Outreach Program funded a peer support worker for three to four days a week to support vulnerable members of our community. With ever-changing needs in our community, this support worker helped by accompanying some to the hospital, at times a very frightening place for those with mental wellness struggles; helped navigate a confusing system to get needed help; intervened to calm a public conflict; and sometimes just offered a listening ear and kind heart. This pilot proved the need for such a peer support worker. With only about 15 weeks of funding left, the Mental Wellness Initiative is seeking the funding and structure to continue this successful program. 
  • The Goodwill Ambassador Program (https://saltspringexchange.com/2023/06/28/ask-salt-spring-with-the-coordinators-of-the-new-ambassador-program/), those green-vested folks walking about Ganges smiling and chatting with everyone, offer a culture of goodness in our village. Struggling with the loss of its coordinator, Gloria, the Mental Wellness Initiative is confident that the solid program foundation and caring volunteers will continue Gloria’s good work of spreading kindness and goodness. 
  • Reach Out Salt Spring (https://www.reachoutsaltspring.com/) recruits mental health care professionals to donate 10 free sessions a year to those who cannot afford their services. With three new recruits just this week and progress engaging dental professionals into this program, David is confident that this program will continue to grow, offering counseling and other health care services to those who can not afford to pay. And, this program has already proved its success: One individual who did 10 sessions with a volunteer Reach Out Salt Spring practitioner decided to go into recovery! 

A foundation of all these programs is a focus on recovery, community engagement, and ridding our community of the stigmatizing behaviour too often expressed to those struggling to gain mental wellness. David told us that care can be given in so many ways. It can be as simple as offering those basic needs such as showers, shelter, and food. (David noted that several years ago, free meals were offered only once a week. Now, as the result of individuals and partnerships by many caring nonprofits, free meals in Ganges are offered each day.) This care could also be offering support to one in recovery. This recovery support could extend to family care and often even care for furry family members. And, it almost always involves stories, those stories that help us to understand each other, connect, and weave our community together. 

We learned that the Mental Wellness Initiative is not alone in its work to bring wellness to our community. There was good news about the Island Health funded Mental Health and Substance Use Program (https://www.islandhealth.ca/our-services/mental-health-substance-use-services/adult-mental-health-substance-use-services/southern-gulf-islands-mental-health-substance-use) in the Lancer Building: Recently added to its team are two psychiatrists. It is also now offering same day counseling for those in need. 

Our conversation shifted briefly to the team-based approach to healthcare discussed in depth in last week’s ASK Salt Spring report (https://asksaltspring.com/2025/11/28/promising-primary-care-news-for-salt-spring/). It was agreed that offering mental wellness services in addition to medical services in a central location will offer great strides in our health care. A participant noted, however, that some of our most vulnerable will still not come to a healthcare clinic. He asked about the possibility of acquiring a mobile van for outreach. While the proposal for funding of a mobile van was initially denied, there is hope that once our Community Health Care Clinic is up and running, funding for a mobile van could be a next step. 

Despite all the achievements of the Mental Wellness Initiative, David maintains that the process is more important than the product. He believes that ensuring that all are feeling connected and included is more important than concrete outcomes. He noted that we often get so focused upon solving a problem that we lose sight of what really needs to be changed. We noted that meetings that take time to check in with everyone at the table and make sure they are moving forward together are more collaborative, satisfying. . . and often even more productive than rule-bound, bureaucratic endeavours.

We learned that the Mental Wellness Initiative is always seeking funding, consistently reaching out to governmental sources and foundations on Salt Spring as well as in Victoria and Vancouver. The fiscal partner of the Mental Wellness Initiative, Lookout Foundation, is connected with a wide variety of funding sources that could eventually help support our local efforts. Local community donors have also been extremely generous. 

The list of potential funding sources for the Mental Wellness Initiative is long but also offered with a reminder: This initiative is almost totally fueled by volunteers. While the opportunity to do more and more abounds, capacity is always a consideration. Writing and administering grants take a great deal of time. . . time taken from that important work of connecting our community with care. 

As our time together was drawing to a close, a participant asked: “What can we do to help you with your great work?”

  • Volunteer – you are always needed!
  • Donate 
  • Learn more about mental wellness and what is needed to create a community that supports it,
  • Day after day, connect with others and model what a good, caring community looks like.

On that note, we did something we have never done: We shared a group hug, deeply appreciative of the amazing community in which we are blessed to live. We expressed gratitude for David and all those Mental Wellness Initiative volunteers who care so deeply, support so many, and continually weave those connections that are strengthening our community. (Thank-you, David and all!)

Just in case you are interested. . . .This report has been written by Gayle Baker, founder of ASK Salt Spring, currently also a Salt Spring Local Community Commissioner. It has been reviewed and edited by David.

Did You Know: 

ASK Salt Spring first gathered October 4, 2019 and is now in its 7th year of offering weekly discussions? 

Please join us in celebrating you who have joined these conversations week after week! 

Check our new website at asksaltspring.com!

Want to help? We welcome volunteers to join the team. 

Please join us making ASK Salt Spring ever better!

Is there a special guest we should invite? Would you like to be our special guest? Suggestions welcome: ask@asksaltspring.com

Big News: 

ASK Salt Spring has ongoing funding! We receive a check for $1,000 each year to pay our annual rent of $800 with a little bit left over for other expenses – like cookies :).

Of course, you could also donate as well by simply transferring funds to ask@asksaltspring.com.

The answer to the security question is “Salt.”