News Archives: RBC Donation Increases Access to Mental Health Services for GPRC Students
Tuesday, March 8th, 2016
GRANDE PRAIRIE– GPRC’s new RBC Centre for Student Wellbeing is increasing access to mental health and wellness services for students.
RBC is investing $250,000 over the next five years through the GPRC Alumni/Foundation to help GPRC students succeed at college with greater access to on-campus supports such a Peer Counselling and leadership development programs such as Education Ambassadors.
The $250,000 investment by RBC will create new sustainable programs at GPRC including a mentorship program which connects new students with an Education Ambassador and an Experience GPRC program to bring rural northwestern Alberta high school students on campus to see all GPRC offers. It will also increase the number of peer counsellors, offer more student-specific mental health campaigns on-campus and increase learning opportunities about mental health for faculty, staff and students.
A new Leadership Den area is being created in partnership with the Students’ Association of GPRC within Pillars cafeteria to give students a place to meet, connect with one another and find information about the supports that GPRC has available.
“Investing in education is fundamentally about investing in the potential of young Canadians,” says Jeff Boyd, Regional President, RBC Royal Bank. “We’re thrilled to play a part in offering youth in Alberta greater access to GPRC and the kind of support and programs that will enable their success, mind and body alike.”
“Our students dream big and come to GPRC to get the education needed to make their dreams a reality. We also know going to college while balancing life as a student is hard work and can have its challenges and stresses,” says Don Gnatiuk, GPRC President and CEO. “That’s why GPRC is so grateful for RBC’s support of these mental health and wellbeing services to help students succeed.”
Nathan Lazinchuk, 26, signed up to be a Peer Counsellor and an Education Ambassador when he started his Education degree in the fall of 2015. He wanted to be a resource for other GPRC students and help them achieve their education goals.
“I’ve been very lucky that I’ve always had a good personal support system in place so to give that kind of support to another students was something I wanted to be able to do,” he says. “For young people coming here for the first time, it can be scary if you don’t have a support system to relieve and manage that stress and anxiety.”
Education Ambassadors create and run on-campus events that connect students to one another to build the sense of community that exists at GPRC. The Peer Counselling program provides students a safe place to go and talk to a specially-trained student about personal issues.
On top of a full-time course load during the fall semester, Lazinchuk completed the 93 hours of training be a Peer Counsellor as well as being a frequent organizer of campus activities as an Education Ambassador.
“Getting involved like this opens your mind and makes you think differently and think about something bigger than yourself and that’s how change is made. GPRC is a safe place to be to make a difference and make things better.”
GPRC is a comprehensive community institution, publicly supported to provide opportunities in post-secondary education in northwestern Alberta. Established in 1966 in Grande Prairie, GPRC now includes campuses in Fairview and Grande Prairie, and learning centres in Edson, Grande Cache, Hinton and Jasper. GPRC offers a wide variety of career certificates and diplomas, pre-employment and apprenticeship trades, university transfer studies, and several opportunities for on-campus degree completion at baccalaureate and master levels through collaborations with four-year universities. For more information visit gprc.ab.ca.
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For more information, please contact:
Mark Evans
GPRC
Corporate Communications
Phone: 780-539-2951