November was a record-setting month for the Whistler Community Services Society (WCSS), with all-time high numbers of visits to the Whistler Food Bank, outreach efforts, and services rendered through its counselling assistance program.
Speaking at the Dec. 19 Whistler council meeting, executive director of WCSS, Jackie Dickinson, said the organization spent every cent of the $15,400 it got from the RMOW for its counselling assistance program in 2023.
“As of Jan. 1 [2023] to December, we’ve supported over 147 people in the community to get clinical counselling,” said Dickinson.
“The very challenging news that comes along with this is we are currently over budget—which means we are spending more than budgeted for, for the counselling assistance program, but that’s not a weakness. As you’ve heard me say many times in this place, it is a true sign of strength in our community.”
It is a strength because so many feel they can reach out and get the help they need, Dickinson told Pique afterwards, when she shared more detail into how over-budget the program was, considering the WCSS’ fiscal year went from April through to the following March.
“At this point, year to date, [the counselling program is] about $8,000 over-budget,” she said. WCSS has another three months in the current fiscal year. Its counselling program had a little over $30k budgeted for the year.
“One of two things may happen… we may see not the same uptake for the remainder of the fiscal year, or we may have to consider allocating more funding to this program, fundraising more, and applying for more grants for it if that usage continues,” Dickinson said.
“Regardless of what happens, we are going to ensure that people that qualify for this program get the support they need—we are not going to turn people away.”
WCSS’s counselling assistance program is designed to provide clinical mental and emotional counselling to Whistler residents who cannot otherwise afford it, for whatever reason. The program was the single largest recipient of the RMOW’s CEP funding in 2023, when the municipality also vended out more than $160,000 in funds to a total of 40 community groups.
Moving forward, Dickinson said the wider community should consider advocating for employers to provide extended health benefits plans so more people can access counselling when needed as a way to help. She also said Vancouver Coastal Health needs to see the numbers and know what sort of supports are needed.
“I think it really speaks to the fact that, more than ever, people are asking for help and needing help, and we need to continue to address that,” Dickinson said, adding it goes beyond mental-health services and clinical counselling.
“We know that people are asking for this type of help because they’re housing insecure and finances are stressed … there are a lot of things that are impacting their mental health and well-being, so this is a statistic that speaks louder and clearer about the essential needs of our community,” she said.
“And if we are unable to support the people in those areas, then additional levels of support are going to be required.”
The counselling program was underutilized as recently as a decade ago.
FOOD BANK SEES RECORD NUMBERS
The counselling services program wasn’t the only program seeing record numbers and growth over the last few years—one-to-one outreach hit a new record at 1,200 in November, while the number of visits to the Whistler Food Bank, operated by the WCSS, is also well up, at more than 1,900 in the last month.
“These numbers are alarmingly high,” said Dickinson, noting that even at the height of the pandemic and the economic shutdown in 2020, WCSS saw visits averaging out at 1,400 a month.
“We saw numbers in the last year and a half that have sat around 1,400, 1,500, at times 1,700, but we’ve never seen 1,900 visits in the 30 year-plus history of this program, per month.”
The main reason so many are using the food bank is housing insecurity—a big change from pre-pandemic, when most visits were from members of the community who were sick or injured, and facing high medical costs.
There are a few factors at play, but Dickinson said that for November 2023, officials suspect the poor start to winter has something to do with the spike.
“I think these numbers are high because there’s a delay in weather and snow and people going to work and getting a lot of shifts,” she said. “I am happy to report that those numbers will be significantly lower in December, which shows that people are getting employed, and they’re getting hours that they need.”
In a more broad sense, housing insecurity is an issue for many in Whistler, but Dickinson said the community’s reputation as a difficult place for seasonal workers to find somewhere to stay is preceding itself.
“One of the theories that we came up with last year in October 2022 (when there was another spike), was that some people are needing to arrive in Whistler earlier than anticipated to secure housing, and the people that are trying to secure housing are dealing with really high costs that they did not anticipate,” she said, explaining that longer-than-expected Airbnb stays was denying new residents access to proper kitchen facilities, and drawing down on savings faster than planned.
“We saw so many posts (on Facebook) this fall where people, in efforts to stay here and secure staff housing, had to Airbnb for multiple months. That has a tremendous impact.”
Dickinson added it’s not just a newcomer problem, however, and that even if those seeking WCSS’ help were new to Whistler, they are still entitled to whatever assistance WCSS can offer.
“Most people have this thought that the high usage of our food bank is related to newcomers and new residents, and people who haven’t been here a long time. The reality is that we may see some of those individuals, but we are seeing people who have lived here for many, many years needing access to a food bank,” she said.
“I think when people ask, ‘who are these people, what age are they, and where did they come from?’ … none of that really matters. They’re here, they’re Whistlerites, they belong to this community, and we have to find a way to support them, because we value what they bring and what they offer.”
Going forward, Dickinson said WCSS will do as much as possible to meet demand—through applying for more grants, doing more fundraising, and ensuring every dollar goes as far as possible.
Learn more at mywcss.org.
