Katie's Story
Your Connection with Foundry Sea to Sky: I’m a member of the Caregiver Advisory Committee
Why does Foundry Sea to Sky matter to you? I first became involved with Foundry Sea to Sky in February 2020 after my sister and I moved to Squamish, and both our parents had passed away. I was really struggling with my own mental health and my sister's mental health. We found our way to Foundry North Vancouver and accessed some of their online resources.
It's been hard to be a caregiver for my sister after our parents passed. I had no clue, I was thrown into it and it has been a big learning experience for me. I have learned a lot, I have cried a lot. There have been many, many tears. It's made me a different person, I'm a completely different person than I was two years ago. I've grown so much but in a positive way, from being her caregiver.
With Foundry, I feel like they have more of an inclusive approach. Their focus is youth, but they saw that I was struggling, and they helped me through that. I was super anxious to call, to do an intake for my sister’s counselling and they basically were there on the phone with me, on the video, calling with me to step by step, take me through it. Which was really nice, I've never had somebody do that for me before because usually it's just focus on youth, which makes sense. But they actually had an understanding about the caregiver and their situation as well.
How do you envision Foundry Sea to Sky making an impact in our community? I think it will be a really, really good resource for youth. Because they're going to have the youth groups and it will be somewhere for youth to go, somewhere that supports LGBTQ as well. And it will all be one resource in one area. And that’s really great.
Why does Foundry Sea to Sky matter to you? I first became involved with Foundry Sea to Sky in February 2020 after my sister and I moved to Squamish, and both our parents had passed away. I was really struggling with my own mental health and my sister's mental health. We found our way to Foundry North Vancouver and accessed some of their online resources.
It's been hard to be a caregiver for my sister after our parents passed. I had no clue, I was thrown into it and it has been a big learning experience for me. I have learned a lot, I have cried a lot. There have been many, many tears. It's made me a different person, I'm a completely different person than I was two years ago. I've grown so much but in a positive way, from being her caregiver.
With Foundry, I feel like they have more of an inclusive approach. Their focus is youth, but they saw that I was struggling, and they helped me through that. I was super anxious to call, to do an intake for my sister’s counselling and they basically were there on the phone with me, on the video, calling with me to step by step, take me through it. Which was really nice, I've never had somebody do that for me before because usually it's just focus on youth, which makes sense. But they actually had an understanding about the caregiver and their situation as well.
How do you envision Foundry Sea to Sky making an impact in our community? I think it will be a really, really good resource for youth. Because they're going to have the youth groups and it will be somewhere for youth to go, somewhere that supports LGBTQ as well. And it will all be one resource in one area. And that’s really great.