A porch light left on at night symbolizes a warm welcome.
Porchlight Counselling and Addiction Services hopes that everyone who walks through its doors, no matter what their journey, feels accepted and cared for.
Last year, the organization unveiled its new name from Family Counselling Centre of Cambridge and North Dumfries, (FCCCND) and executive director, Cameron Dearlove, says the rebranding has been nothing but a huge success.
“It’s hard to believe that was only a year ago. I remember just a week after, I was at a community meeting. People were already referring to us as Porchlight, talking about what we do. I remember thinking that’s so great. The name was picked up so quickly,” Dearlove says.
“We’ve had a lot of great feedback about the name, about how much people like it, and how it speaks to what we are trying to do as an organization, where people feel comfortable and feel welcomed.”
Porchlight Counselling and Addiction Services provides a safe space where counselling and addictions services support the emotional well-being of people in Cambridge and North Dumfries.
“The recognition in the community has really grown since taking the new name. We are doing a lot of work as far as communicating and advocating. Having a more memorable and meaningful name has made a huge difference, especially when it comes to client recognition,” Dearlove says.
“And as for donors, we’ve had more corporate business donations. So, it’s been an amazing success in that way, also.”
Since 1940, Porchlight Counselling and Addiction Services provides Cambridge and North Dumfries with supports.
What started as a grassroots effort with the arrival of war brides in 1940, became a local counselling centre by the 1960s, and since then has continued to support the changing needs of the community.
The organization continues to evolve, not only a counselling and mental health centre, but also in areas such as case management, addictions recovery living, supportive housing, mental health research at local schools, and senior support and outreach.
This includes fifteen beds in two houses for post-addictions treatment and stabilization that supports individuals who are rebuilding their lives in the community following addictions treatment.
“We are trying to not only sustain our program, but also grow it, particularly our women’s services. Just a couple weeks ago, we put a letter out to the community asking for help to find us a suitable rental for our women’s’ recovery home,” Dearlove says.
“We are currently renting a small semi detached home, but it just doesn’t fit the space for the program that we want to run and just the general living conditions for the women. So, we are on the hunt for a large rental home.”
Of course, Dearlove says, this continues to be a big challenge for the organization.
“There’s 'a bit' of a housing crisis going on. But once we find a new space, we hope to expand the six beds we have, to nine,” Dearlove says.
“Every day there are three women that can’t have access to our services. We need to find a larger home and we are trying to move as fast as we can. That’s one of things that has changed this past year, the level of need that we see.”
Dearlove says the needs are greater than what Porchlight can currently accommodate.
“In the last year, our wait list has really spiked, when it comes to our recovery homes. We have about 25 men and 25 women on our wait lists," Dearlove says.
With needs unmet for those struggling to find a recovery community, and with an aging population, these needs will only increase.
“We have people reach out from all over the province trying to get beds in our homes because our services are unique in terms of supports,” Cameron says.
When it comes to mental health and counselling, Porchlight continues to see unprecedented demand for supports.
Last year, over 1,500 people received counselling services at Porchlight.
“We dropped our wait list for counselling by a bit. Currently it is at about a three month wait. Earlier in the pandemic we were up to six months. So, we have made some progress. And that is not because the need has dropped, but because we have essentially doubled our capacity in counselling,” Dearlove says.
“We have twelve councillors as compared to six and we still can’t keep up with the demand, particularly for children and youth. That’s the big growth area.”
According to Dearlove, during the pandemic, the number of children and youth seeking supports more than doubled.
“And this has never dropped. It has only continued. In fact, our reception team was over run in September by just the number of parents reaching out trying to get supports for their children. So many are still struggling,” Dearlove says.
“Of course we encourage them to reach out to us, and we try to do our best to get them in as soon as we can. The need is there.”
Dearlove says that after dropping the long geography from its original name, the commitment to Cambridge and North Dumfries has never been stronger.
“I myself am not a mental health professional. But I do know things about running an organization and working in a community. I was actually a volunteer with the organization, a member of the Board of Directors, before I ended up being a staff member,” Dearlove says.
“I see the good that the organization does in the community every day, making sure, particularly, that our addictions programs run despite funding challenges.”
Dearlove says Porchlight is an organization that really does put the community first.
“On a personal level, I have had my own share of mental health challenges. I am part of an organization that provides this kind of support that I myself needed and have used,” Dearlove says.
“I think I am pretty lucky to be part of that.”
