Demand for some St. Albert social programs grew dramatically in 2023, according to a recently published report from the city’s Family and Community Support Services (FCSS).
St. Albert Further Education’s newcomer connection program, which helps newcomers integrate into the community, saw usage spike by 38 per cent in comparison to 2022. That adds up to an extra 464 newcomers assisted by the program, for a total of 1,222 participants in 2023.
It’s not surprising to Connie Smigielski, the city’s senior manager of community services.
“There are so many more newcomers coming into Canada in general,” Smigielski said. “We're seeing that in every community, including St. Albert.”
She said that St. Albert is doing its best to meet the community’s needs, but the city faces challenges in the areas of housing and food security.
“That's not just newcomers. It's across the board for everybody,” she said. “The cost of living has increased so dramatically.”
That bears out in the number of referrals FCSS gave for basic needs services such as the food bank and housing programs.
Last year the number of hampers provided by the St. Albert food bank grew by 31 per cent to 6,247 hampers from roughly 4,310 hampers the year prior, the report says.
The food bank identified 133 unhoused people and 34 individuals in the city were given crisis aversion funds to support with rent and other housing payments.
The number of households approved for the city’s subsidy program, which helps low-income individuals and families afford city recreation facilities and transit, jumped by 48 per cent to 1,194 from about 621 households.
The report also found there was increased demand for mental health supports last year in comparison to 2022.
“I think what we're still seeing is a bit of a COVID hangover,” Smigielski said. “I hate to use that term, because we've been saying it for a while, but people were so isolated for such a long time.”
Young people in particular seem to be more in need of mental health supports, she said.
“If you talk to any of the organizations and the school boards, across the board we're all seeking the same thing … If young people are isolated from their peers, there are things [they] can't learn.”
Last year the city more than doubled its mental health workshops for students, delivering a total of 114 workshops focused on student well-being to local schools.
The report notes an increase in demand for community social supports such as Outloud, St. Albert's organization for 2SLGBTQI+ youth, which closed in May. Demand for Outloud’s outreach program grew by 9 per cent in 2023.
The city can’t create a gathering space for 2SLGBTQI+ youth like the one provided by Outloud, Smigielski said. But youth can still come to FCSS for referrals to counselling and other social supports.
So far this year the demand for many social services in the city is looking very similar to 2023.
“We've not seen any changes in cost of living … housing costs just continuing to go up,” she said. “I think it'll be status quo. What we what we've been dealing with this year, we'll see very much the same next year.”
Demand for food bank hampers continues to rise, she said.
Despite the increasing need for referrals and access to FCSS-funded programs, FCSS hasn’t yet had the need to hire more staff, Smigielski said.
