Military Family Resource Centre gets funding boost
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Updated: July 28, 2009 3:37 PM
When Leanne Kopp moved to Victoria from Edmonton six years ago, she didn't know anyone.
She left friends and family behind to move with her husband who serves with the armed forces.
"That sense of isolation can lead to a really bad quality of life," Kopp said.
She contacted the Military Family Resource Centre, a non-profit organization that helps families adjust to their new lives.
Kopp works in the non-profit sector. She is the executive director of the Prostate Centre and sits on the resource center's board of directors.
"It was difficult to break into the work place, so when I came here my first utilization of services with the MFRC was their employment services," she said.
In 2006 her husband was deployed to Afghanistan. She said the people she met through the centre that supported her at that time were invaluable.
The centre got a $10,000 boost from Telus on Tuesday to help support existing programs. The company hosted a BBQ for dozens of military families and announced the donation outside the new MFRC office at the former Lampson Street school in Esquimalt.
Steve Lawrence is a spokesperson for the MFRC and said the money will help keep existing programs like childcare and counselling up and running.
Working in the military is a demanding profession, he said.
"So if you know your kids and your spouse are taken care of then you can do your job and concentrate on what the needs are out there."
lweighton@vicnews.com
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