A Maple Ridge agency devoted to helping children and youth who have been victims of abuse will be getting new funding from the federal government.
Alisa’s Wish Child and Youth Advocacy Centre will be receiving $263,718 in order to strengthen services, to support a transition to a sustainable funding model and continue offering accessible, integrated services that respond to the needs of child and youth victims of sexual or physical assault, lessening the burden of them retelling their experiences by reducing the number of interviews that victims are subjected to.
Minister of Justice and Attorney General David Lametti made the funding announcement Wednesday at the centre’s Maple Ridge location.
Alisa’s Wish – under the umbrella of the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Community Services – helps all children and youth in Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows and Katzie First Nation who have experienced or witnessed physical, emotional or sexual abuse. It provides a coordinated approach to the prevention, identification, prosecution and treatment of abuse involving children and youth.
The organization gives child victims a safe, comfortable space where they can obtain services that are adapted and customized to their needs in order to lessen, in the short-, medium- and long-term, the consequences of the violence they have experienced.
“We are honoured to have been given the opportunity and support of the Justice Department Ottawa these last several years, which has allowed us to develop our amazing, dedicated multidisciplinary team of CYAC Community Partners and a coordinated service delivery response to the abuse of children/youth victims and witnesses to violence,” said Colette Madsen, director of programs and services with Alisa’s Wish.
“Through this funding, we provide a safe, child-friendly setting and a trauma-informed approach that keeps the needs of the child at the centre of the work as we collaborate in the investigation, support and treatment of young victims who walk through the doors of Alisa’s Wish,” she added.
Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge MP Dan Ruimy said that the funding will allow Alisa’s Wish to continue to provide the community with an important service.
“Confronting the impacts of abuse can often be traumatizing, but through facilitation and prevention services, the organization lessens the burden felt by many victims and their families,” said Ruimy.
Through the Child Advocacy Centre Initiative, the Government of Canada is working to provide increased support to victims and their families by providing funding to create multi-disciplinary, coordinated and child-and-youth centred services in one location.
The CAC Initiative provides funding to a number of victim-serving, non-governmental organizations whose programs and activities are aligned with the priorities of the Victims Fund and the Government of Canada.
• For more information about Alisa’s Wish, go to alisaswish.com.
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