$1 million donation enhances professional counselling, text and online capacity to address ongoing surge in the need for support

MONTRÉAL, June 25, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ – Bell Let’s Talk and Kids Help Phone today announced a national $1 million investment to enhance ongoing crisis support for young people coping with mental health challenges during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.

As the need for support has continued to grow during the crisis, Kids Help Phone has continued to ramp up its crisis responder and professional counselling capacity, enhanced its texting platform and created a range of self-directed online resources. With a 58% overall increase in demand during COVID-19 and text interactions up 62%, Kids Help Phone expects to make 3 million connections with young people this year, compared to 1.9 million in 2019.

“This Bell Let’s Talk funding will support Kids Help Phone in delivering its expanded frontline responses for youth in crisis now and into the future,” said Mary Deacon, Chair of Bell Let’s Talk. “As a founding partner of Kids Help Phone more than 30 years ago, we’re proud to work with this great organization to ensure young people have access to the mental health supports they need, especially in the face of the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 situation.”

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, the volume of young people reaching out continues to soar with concerns around isolation, grief, discrimination, abuse and self harm. Times are tough and the issues with young people are heavier and more complex than ever,” said Katherine Hay, President and CEO of Kids Help Phone. “We’re grateful to Bell Let’s Talk for their commitment to mental health and helping millions of young people across this country to access support 24/7 – a positive impact that will ripple through communities for years to come.”

Bell announced a $5 million increase in Bell Let’s Talk funding in response to COVID-19 with support for a range of organizations delivering urgent mental health support on the front lines of Canadian communities, including Kids Help Phone, Canadian Mental Health Association, Canadian Red Cross, Revivre and Strongest Families Institute.

Bell Let’s Talk
The largest-ever corporate commitment to mental health in Canada, Bell Let’s Talk has partnered with more than 1,000 organizations providing mental health services throughout Canada, including hospitals, universities, local community service providers and other care and research organizations. To learn more, please visit Bell.ca/LetsTalk.

Kids Help Phone
Kids Help Phone is Canada’s only 24/7 e-mental health service offering free, confidential support in English and French to young people. As the country’s virtual care expert, we give millions of youth a safe, trusted space to talk over phone and online chat or through text message in any moment of crisis or need. Through our digital transformation, we envision a future where every person in Canada is able to get the support they need, when they need it most, and with our expansion to an adult texting service, all people in Canada are never alone. Kids Help Phone is fueled by courageous donors, partners, volunteers, government and communities from coast to coast to coast. Learn more at KidsHelpPhone.ca or @KidsHelpPhone.

 

https://www.bce.ca/news-and-media/releases/show/Kids-Help-Phone-and-Bell-Let-s-Talk-ramp-up-support-for-youth-mental-health-1?page=1&month=&year=&perpage=25

June 22, 2020

REGINA—Unifor Local 594 members have ratified a tentative agreement with Co-op Refinery, ending a six-month lockout of 730 workers by Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL).

“Our members and their bargaining committee held firm throughout a difficult, protracted and often bitter negotiation process,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “In the end we were successful in protecting their retirement security and in achieving the national wage pattern but this result could have been reached far earlier if the mediator recommendations had been enforced by Premier Scott Moe.”

The new collective agreement maintains the defined benefit pension plan and the company matched employee savings plan for existing workers. Wage improvements in the new collective agreement match the National Pattern.

“We didn’t seek this work stoppage. Now that it’s finally been resolved our members are looking forward to returning to their jobs and getting back to work,” said Unifor Local 594 President Kevin Bittman. “This was the first, and hopefully last, work stoppage in our local’s 78 years of faithfully providing the Co-op Refinery with our dedicated labour. It will be hard going back into the workplace for some of us, but we will do it with our heads held high because we stood in solidarity for one another. This has been the toughest period in our history, but we will be stronger because of it.”

Unifor Local President Kevin Bittman will hold a media availability at 4 p.m. outside the union hall at 200 Hodsman Road, Regina.

June 19, 2020

TORONTO – Unifor welcomes the decision by the Ontario government to cancel its proposal to eliminate all but three statutory holidays for retail workers.

“We are pleased that the Ford government has changed its mind on this issue. Retail workers have been a vital part of getting our communities through the pandemic, and have been working incredibly hard to keep food on our tables,” Unifor National President Jerry Dias said.

“Coming just days after their pay was cut by major grocers, the possibility that they would lose their statutory holidays just added insult to injury.”

Dias spoke with Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Labour Minister Monte McNaughton this morning, who confirmed Ontario would not go ahead with the proposal to eliminate all statutory holidays for retail workers except Christmas, Good Friday and Canada Day.

“This is obviously good news, but the pay cuts are still in place and shows that we must remain constantly vigilant to stand up for the rights of all workers,” Dias said.

Loblaw was the first to announce it would end the $2 premium paid to workers in its grocery stores, and was soon followed by other major retailers, including Metro and Sobeys.

Unifor is leading efforts to make fair pay permanent as the country slowly emerges from the pandemic. The Fair Pay Forever campaign calls for historic inequities in the sector to be corrected. Many workers are forced to take more than one part-time job to get by.