Our Impact

Happy girls on a vacation in Paris

Report to the community

Message from the Board Chair

Our fiscal year ending July 31, 2023 saw many ‘firsts’ for Arnica Foundation. First and foremost was the incredible response we had for our first ever fundraising drive. We are beyond humbled to have greatly exceeded our fundraising goal. To our Founding Donors, all 28 private, corporate and Foundation donors, we are extremely grateful to you for putting your faith behind our new charity. Your investments in growing strong girls will help them grow into emotionally strong and powerful women. With your support, they are on the path to become community leaders in whatever profession they chose.

In our first year of operations, Arnica Foundation started to fulfill our charitable objectives. Beginning in February, we began offering financial subsidies through Juno House therapists to adolescent girls, young women and their families in need of mental health therapy. By July 31, 2023, 10 families were benefiting from your donations and 121 hours of subsidized therapy was provided.

In addition, four community presentations were made through Alberta Health Services on ‘Navigating Tech with our Youth’ and “Emotional Coaching’. These presentations were extremely well received with 361 attendees gaining valuable tips on adolescent development and parenting.

We were also excited to have two therapists start their three-year residency program funded by Arnica Foundation. This will help to increase the therapeutic capacity in Calgary by providing specialized training to therapists in the treatment of adolescent girls and young women. These therapists will eventually have a full caseload of up to 25 families each.

The demand for these services continues to increase. In the Calgary Foundation’s ‘Quality of Life Report 2023’, 59% of young people 18 to 24 feel stressed, up from 38% in 2022. These young adults reported that 42% of them didn’t have access to mental health support, and 39% rated their mental health as poor or below average.

Arnica Foundation looks forward to continuing to deliver on our charitable objectives in the upcoming year. Once again, on behalf of the Board, I thank you for your trust in Arnica Foundation. Your generosity has provided us with a solid foundation to help grow adolescent girls and young women and their families.

Mike Colborne
Chair

2022/2023 by the numbers report