By Alison Bradish
Sandi Urban is proud, immensely proud of her team.
The Executive Director of Catholic Family Services, Urban works with 30 full-time staff in the areas of counselling, family support, and newcomer services.
These services did not cease when Covid-19 restrictions commenced.
“It was never once a question of, everybody’s going home, that’s it. Pack up our bags and wait this out. It was, ‘how are we going to meet the needs of our clients?’ We looked at every client across all off our programs and did a risk assessment,” says Urban.
Staff members created a support plan for each client. They figured out who needed support in the areas of communication, food security, mental health services and other areas.
CFS works with approximately 100 families many of whom are facing challenges to employment or who are trying to reunite their family after children were put in foster care. CFS also works with newcomers to Canada.
“What happens when transit closes, what happens when libraries close, and those public places? I think a lot of people don’t understand the impact of their closure to the population we serve,” says Urban.
She says people often take Wi-Fi access for granted and explains many CFS clients do not have a working cell phone, or if they do, they need a public Wi-Fi access point to use apps, make phone calls, or access resources on the Internet.
“They can’t have it (Wi-Fi) for safety, they can’t have it for their child’s education that has now been pushed online, they can’t apply for any of the programs and safety nets that have been put out there because they are all web based. They cannot find out where to access food or food security or all those other things. All the information coming to them is based on the Internet,” says Urban.
During the quarantine period when public Wi-Fi areas were closed Urban says people donated old cell phones and money so staff could buy basic data and phone plans for clients who needed them the most.
Staff also did home visits from a distance, to get a truer sense of how clients were coping. Urban says staff gathered visual cues from these visits, often from the edge of a property or doorstep, to assess what other supports a client was needing.
Sometimes staff were able to ease the burden of an isolated mother with the simple act of dropping off a bag of activities for the children.
CFS is an organization open to all people and offers their services to anyone who is referred or who seeks them out. Urban clarifies a common misconception is the organization only serves the Catholic community. This is not the case.
“We get that question a lot from people. Why Catholic? I think it is kind of like having the last name you have. You are proud of that heritage. You are proud of your family and your roots. At CFS we are proud of that name and proud to be part of that family. Part of being in that family is that we have big hearts, and that is where our motto comes in ‘Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors’. We serve everybody. We want everyone to thrive,” says Urban.
In 1934 Archbishop Monahan requested the help of the Sisters of St. Martha in Antigonish to establish a Catholic social services agency in Regina. The Sisters established a hospital for single pregnant women and a home for women in and their babies. In 1937 the Catholic Welfare Society was established in the city and has evolved into what CFS is today, an organization employing social workers, psychologists, and other health professionals.
“Often clients come to us who other agencies have given up on. We look at our clients as individuals. Everybody has strengths to build upon and we are there to walk that journey with them and meet the client where they are at. We do not come with a preconceived curriculum of this is what you need to do. We work with each individual client identifying what their goals are,” says Urban.
One of the ways CFS has expanded its outreach are the walk-in clinics offered once a week in Southey, Indian Head and three times a week in Regina. No appointment is necessary to come and talk to a counsellor, or to speak to one over the phone at those times.
“Men, generally by research, if there are supports available in the moment will access them. But if it is a case of where you phone to make an appointment and then you are put on a waitlist and that response it not right now, they tend not to go,” says Urban noting her staff can attest to the research. Urban says the different dynamic of walk-in counselling helps reach those who may not otherwise come for service.
Urban also hopes the addition of a Recovery Response Counsellor to staff will help ease a critical gap in community support for those dealing with addictions.
At this time CFS is open for in person visits but Covid-19 screening questions are asked, and social distancing protocols followed.
