The Annual General Meeting was held last night in Weyburn for Envision Counselling and Support.

Two long-standing board members, Tracey Kiliwnik and Kristin Dupuis, completed their terms and were presented with a token of appreciation by Executive Director Christa Daku.

Kiliwnik, who is outgoing board chair, says she knows envision is in good hands.

“I think with having Christa always being innovating and looking for new ways and new ideas and expanding in our rural region, where our rural communities need it the most, I think that the future of Envision is going to be stronger and even bigger than we've seen,” she shared.

She said the board is in good hands with incoming board chair Brian Pilloud and vice-chair Tana Cugnet.

“Brian and Tana will do an excellent job. Brian has been on the board two years less than me and so has Tana, so we've grown a lot together," she noted.

Incoming Treasurer is Lana Perrault, and Tana Cugnet has also taken on the role of Secretary.

Kiliwnik said a lot has changed financially for Envision in the past year.

"We've had a very strong financial year this year,” she said. “Last year was very scary. There were some decisions that we were looking to make if funding didn't come in any better. Fortunately, we didn't have to make any of those decisions, and this year, with fundraising and donations, we ended up very strong financially, and with Christa and her budget ways, she managed to save us some money as well.”

Overall, Envision has seen an increase overall in the number of counselling sessions, program referrals and even social media stats. They reported their Family Support Program Staff drove a total of 159,627 kilometres in the 2018-2019 fiscal year.

Kiliwnik said their counsellors have found greater success including parents when counselling children.

“The family are dealing with a lot of the same issues with their children, so we're giving the families the supports they needed to be able to support their children at home, and so looking at a more family-centred type of counselling rather than just the individual child counselling, and then the child also has that support of a healthy adult at home,” she explained.

Community Outreach Coordinator Julie Dzuba reported a total of 152 school presentations completed in 2018-2019, thanks to a grant from the Community Initiatives Fund, with approximately 25 students per classroom.

With client-centered support across nearly 30,000 square kilometres with a total population of more than 54,000 individuals, Envision Counselling and Support is reporting growth and success for a healthier, stronger southeast Saskatchewan.