Food for Thought has developed some key partnerships with other groups and organizations that greatly benefit the participants who attend. For example, the Saskatoon Open Door Society, which provides resettlement services to new immigrants and refugees, works closely with us and helps us to offer our program to that population specifically.
We have partnered with READ Saskatoon, a local literacy group, to provide resources to our women. We have developed a strong and a very key partnership with mental health and addiction services in our health region. A worker with those specialized skills attends half of our program sessions. That individual can provide short-term counselling, and also assist with timely access to service.
By programming out of primary health facilities, we have also partnered with many other health providers such as nurse practitioners, public health nurses, family physicians, and others.
Food for Thought is also unique because of our nationally recognized peer leadership program. Peer leaders are program participants who are identified as being able to model some of our key program values. These women are selected by the staff and are provided with additional training, ongoing support, and an honorarium. They work with the staff to help deliver the sessions to the participants.
The peer leader experience has been a stepping stone for many of our former clients into other community work, into paid employment, and to further education. In addition, it provides the new women a role model with whom they can identify and who has shared a similar life experience. Our peer leaders play a key role in the planning and implementation of the program by contributing to our program advisory board and also by providing us with regular feedback on program activities.