Activita Association

1. Activita Association Providing stress relief within the lower mainland. ...The change 100,000 hours can make

2. What Is The Probelm? Taking care of a growing community means remembering what creates a community - people. Each individual has the opportunity to make a difference, and play their part in the community. Sometimes, that opportunity is a little harder to take. All of us deal with stress, stemming from a range of situations: Financial hardship, family issues, illness, trauma, death, the unexpected life throws our way. When someone is under stress, they can feel like there’s no one there for them, or no way to escape it. The feel dislocated from the community, not allowing them to play an active role.

3. What Is Our Solution? There are currently hundreds of options available to people dealing with stress. These include counseling, self help books, medication, meditation, financial aid, etc. While professional help is always the first option, we feel like there is something everyone can do to help those in need. You don’t need to be a pharmacist, scientist, or physiologist to make a difference!  We would like to start a volunteer based program centered around helping to relieve stress from those in the community who need it most. Unfortunately, great ambitions never succeed over-night. 

4. Stress and Community Stress affects everyone. In fact, certain levels of stress are healthy for you. Things get out of hand when the stress becomes unbearable or ‘hopeless’. This can happen to anyone, and is triggered by events in life that we’ve mentioned such as illness, poverty, family problems, etc. It is important for anyone who is dealing with unbearable stress to seek stress relief.  We can’t exclude anyone from the struggle of stress, but within the lower mainland, those most at risk include the lower class stressed about their livelihood, teenagers worried about their future and struggling with family problems, those suffering from mental illness and those grieving dead loved ones. Stress is an emotional pain that can affect anybody at any time which can also lead into physical pains. The person and the community can both suffer from this. Stress effects a person by making them feel like they are in a do or die situation, with all the illnesses in the world that a person might have it may affect a person. When stress levels are high, communities get a lot of pressure from it. Stress can have a chain reaction effect. The communities’ unemployment rate, crime rate, an progression are effected by high stress levels.

5. Our Plan Our program will start off with only a handful of volunteers and interested individuals. Our objective is to take individuals needing a stress-free atmosphere out of their current situation, to a more relaxed, free zone. We can achieve this by holding small group get together activities led by a volunteer ratio of 1:2-4. Group activities are held in the general taste of the participants.  Outings could include hiking, art sessions, swimming, walks, photography trips, trips to the SPCA, or the recreation center. Each outing is free to participators and will include one meal.* see budget Eventually our goal would involve gaining funds and enough volunteers to help with the construction of a permanent facility near a park or forest that would consist of an office, art room, activity/recreational room and a greenhouse. The entire facility would cost an estimate of 750 000 dollars and many man hours. This goal facility would be open 5 days a week, allowing for drop in visits, a lower cost of activities and more interest in the organization.  We would also, in the future, like to expand activities to the benefit of helping those in need of stress relief through youth camps and seminars held at the facility.

6. Hours • We are extremely ecstatic to have the chance to gain 100 000 volunteer hours from the skeljay philanthropy organization. We promise to put those hours to good use. We need volunteers to help run activities and provide support for clients. As we mentioned earlier, starting off our project will take time. Within the first year we would like to have accumulated 43 clients and a group of 20 volunteers. We hope to run an average of 3 activities a week in the first year, at an average of 4 hours each. We assume that each volunteer will spend an average of 1 hour each week planning and getting ready for the trips and activities. In the first year, we will have used 13 000 volunteer hours.  • Of course, we expect expansion as we have explained, so we plan on recruiting our own volunteers to keep the organization self sustaining. We will advertise volunteer positions in our organization to the public.  • We have decided to split the hours into thirds. We would like one third of our volunteers to be trained psychologists willing to volunteer their hours for the cause. It’s important that we have people who know what they’re doing to be a good influence, on the clients, and to be leaders amongst the other volunteers. The other two thirds would be normal, caring, diverse citizens.  • If our organization grows and we receive funding or a grant, we would like to use any leftover hours to help in the building of our ‘dream’ facility, in which we would use builders, carpenters, roofers, etc.

7. Budget • Our group is organized by volunteers, and a lot if costs are funded by the Skelijay association, such as food costs, and transportation. • Our activities vary in size and cost, but on average, they cost approximately $7 per person. We will take an average of 3.5 people per trip, and organize 3 trips per week. • Costs per year: 3*3.5*7*52 = $3,822 • We plan to expand our program, adding a facility. The facility would add $250 per month, but would cut our activity costs because most of our activities would be held at the facility. Fundraising In addition to our volunteers, our clients can help support the program and other organizations through fundraisers such as bake sales, sandwich making for the homeless, art sales, etc.  An important factor to stress relief is the feeling of not being alone, being a part of the community, and a sense of control. Accomplishing something like a fundraiser brings those sort of feelings and hope.

8. Why? • Stress is caused by poverty, family problems, illness, traumas and more. Stress detaches people from the community. Stress is also one of the reasons the number of suicides has gone up. Our project hopes to help reduce the stress in the community, so every individual can feel alive. By implementing our idea, we wish to reduce the number of suicides. Everyone has stress, and it’s important to realize that. The community is a learning environment, and everyone needs to pitch in to help keep it that way. Our project will help the community by looking after one another, raising awareness, and sparking hope. We will raise awareness by travelling to various schools. We want to get the mind set that stress can be relieved, and it’s very possible. We want to see the change in the community after we help, whether it’s positive attitudes, or liveliness. No one should be left out. • We have thought of many ideas and we have decided to pick this one, because stress is a tough thing to overcome. If people have a negative attitude, stress will be hard to relieve. It is important to recognize when someone is in stress. Stress is a difficult part in life, and we want to help it disappear faster. By taking stress off the mind, one can feel happy and joy, like a normal person would.

9. Advertisement • Our program is for people who are having trouble with an excess amount of stress in their life. Often times, this happens after a traumatic experience, financial crisis, illness, or social and family problems. Many people looking for stress relief turn to doctors and counselors. Our aim is to become popular among these communities, so that word about our program is advertised at who needs it most. Advertising techniques include brochures, posters, ads in newspapers, and select recreational activity books. • Or course, our biggest help would be the internet, we’ve already started! You and many others have seen this message.  • Awareness is important to us. It’s the basis of a caring community. Advertising wouldn’t just be for clients, we will be constantly recruiting new volunteers to create a self sustained organization.

10. Hours We are extremely ecstatic to have the chance to gain 100 000 volunteer hours from the skeljay philanthropy organization. We promise to put those hours to good use. We need volunteers to help run activities and provide support for clients. As we mentioned earlier, starting off our project will take time. Within the first year we would like to have accumulated 43 clients and a group of 20 volunteers. We hope to run an average of 3 activities a week in the first year, at an average of 4 hours each. We assume that each volunteer will spend an average of 1 hour each week planning and getting ready for the trips and activities. In the first year, we will have used 13 000 volunteer hours.  • Of course, we expect expansion as we have explained, so we plan on recruiting our own volunteers to keep the organization self sustaining. We will advertise volunteer positions in our organization to the public.  • We have decided to split the hours into thirds. We would like one third of our volunteers to be trained psychologists willing to volunteer their hours for the cause. It’s important that we have people who know what they’re doing to be a good influence, on the clients, and to be leaders amongst the other volunteers. The other two thirds would be normal, caring, diverse citizens.  • If our organization grows and we receive funding or a grant, we would like to use any leftover hours to help in the building of our ‘dream’ facility, in which we would use builders, carpenters, roofers, etc.

11. Timeline Year 1: Advertisement : Small group of volunteers set up Year 4: Receive funds for facility Building of facility Year 4: First Youth camp Year 5: Activita is self reliant for volunteer hours Year 10 : A wave of calm sweeps over the lower mainland.

12. Indicators • People returning to participate in activities. • People returning to volunteer • Popularity • Improvements in lives of participants • Psychological improvements from participants • Awareness within the communtiy