Message from the President and the Executive Director

Marie Kwok - President

Raymond C. Y. Chung MSW, RSW - Executive Director

In the rapidly changing external environment in the past year, Hong Fook participated actively at the system level, advocating ¡§cultural competency¡¨ both within the mental health system and across service sectors. In support of the LHINs¡¦ priority on Diversity and Cultural Competency, staff, volunteers and consumers were involved in various networks, collaboratives, task groups and forums in different LHINs and in the community to present the needs of non-English speaking individuals from ethnic communities. 

However, to effect the changes necessary to achieve our Vision of ¡§a multicultural society that understands Mental Health and accepts Mental Illness¡¨, there is also a need for education to raise awareness among service providers. At the organizational level, we have, therefore, extended our partnership beyond the mental health system to work with organizations from different sectors, including settlement service, school boards and other ethno-cultural services. We are proud to collaborate with the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants in a grant from Citizenship and Immigration Canada to offer holistic and mental health training for settlement workers across the province. This will strongly enhance identification of mental health problems and intervention during the early stages of migration. 

Internally, we continue to consolidate and expand our ¡§Continuum of Services¡¨ through service model development and addition of new programs. With the global economic tsunami, the resilience strengthening and wellness building workshops we conducted were timely. Understanding the importance of early education for effective prevention, we also outreached to younger members of the Korean and Vietnamese communities through creative approaches to promote mental health. 

The ¡§Active Body, Healthy Mind¡¨ Project, which focused on wellness for consumers through physical activities and healthy lifestyle, was added with funding from the Ministry of Health Promotion. This new funding also allowed us to run a Leadership Camp for our consumers, the first ever over-night camping trip with consumers in our history. The experience much strengthened their confidence. In view of the positive response from our consumers, we will continue to develop our Self Help Initiatives with a consumer driven and culturally competent approach.

With effective budget management, our Supportive Housing Program was able to add 7 new units to meet the housing needs of our consumers. The biggest challenge for our communities in accessing supportive housing is availability and choice. Different consumers require different types of support with their housing. To date, we have only been able to provide affordable housing with minimal support through the head lease model and in partnership with other housing providers. For those who need higher levels of support to enjoy community living, finding the right supportive housing presents enormous difficulties. The search is often complicated by their lack of English, and once they are accepted into supportive housing settings, their language and cultural needs lead to the further challenges in fitting in. This is one area where we need to explore for alternatives.

We have also witnessed the growth of the new Family Initiatives program through our capacity building effort. Members of the Cantonese Family Support Group have begun to shoulder the leadership role for their group and become our valuable partners, both in the Family Initiatives and at different levels of the agency. Acknowledging the important role family caregivers play in the recovery process, we will continue to explore resources to further develop and strengthen this approach.

In the coming year, we will welcome our new Executive Director and move to two new office sites. We anticipate challenges to come. Yet they will open for us more opportunities to explore new resources and attempt new approaches. 

Thank you all for your support in the past year. We invite you to join us in welcoming a new era of the agency. 

Please click HERE for the complete report !