Since the first major fundraiser that gave its undivided attention to Envision Counselling and Support Centre has seen a major uptake in the amount of people using their services.

"Our referrals have definetly expanded, however we're able to manage at this time," says Executive Director Christa Daku. "Several of our programs are at pretty much at capacity, but with the expansion moving forward with fee for service I think that will alleviate some of the pressure."

It is a bit of an expected result after the added exposure, as more and more people have heard both the impact of what they do, as well as hear from the counsellors they would actually work with. While it's a sad thought to see more people needing these services, Daku says it's uplifting to see more people comfortable with reaching out.

"We're really thankful that people have the awareness that we're hereto seek services from, and people just keep coming through the doors. We've really expanded over the years to become a trusted agerncy and we have very qualified counsellors and family support staff on staff, and I think that's helped out as well."

Not only has the fundraising events gotten the word out about their services, but there's also been an increase in involvement from the community. According to Daku, there has been more people coming out to volunteer their time to help out with different events throughout the year, as well as a few other programs. Not only that, they've seen a jump in the amount of people applying for some of the new positions they are opening in the net few months.

"We've definetly went through a rebranding over the last several years because we used to be the violence intervention program and that's all we did. Although we do still deal with domestic violence and that will never go away as long as we have the funding to support it, we have really looked at encompassing the family unit and being able to provide services to the whole unit, as well as prevention services in the school."

For an organization that is entirely funded through government and community donations, it can be difficult for them to continue to increase the amount of services they can offer throughout southeast Saskatchewan.

Envision is one of the member agencies of the United Way Telethon, and so they recieved some of the $372,200 that was raised for throughout the event. Because of that, the money that was raised for them during the 50/50 for a Cause is being put into next year's budget, which is something Envision has not had the opportunity to do this early on for a long time.

"Budgeting for a non-profit, obviously we're not looking at making money, we're looking at serving people, but that has increased over the years when we haven't the increase in funding, so for us to be able to move forward into the next fiscal year and not have to lose sleep at night working about the financial situation is a real blessing."