Next Up Saskatchewan 2012 Alumnus Jae Ford is a co-founder of Signs of Healing, an initiative to display signs outside the Irene & Les Dube Centre for Mental Health in Saskatoon. The group is currently fundraising to expand their initiative to five other inpatient units. To support the project click here. To read more about this project go to the Saskatoon Star Phoenix article or read the text from the article below.
"Patients at the Dubé Centre for Mental Health can now look out a window during their stay to see messages of support prominently displayed along the Meewasin Trail.
Beth Blakley and Jae Ford were ecstatic when they got the news that their Signs of Healing project would be implemented with the help of the Saskatchewan Health Authority, after their first attempt to place the signs in October fell through due to miscommunications and confusion about what was happening.
'Any message from the community of inspiration or positivity around getting treatment for mental health would be a welcome response for anyone here,' said Zoe Teed McKay, a manager for mental health and addictions services at the Dubé Centre. 'So, we didn’t want to be a barrier to that, especially when we realized the intent.'"