Good afternoon.
My name is Ghislain Beaulieu and I am the president and founding member of the Fondation Martin-Bradley. This foundation was created in March 2008 to help the mental health sector, which we feel is the poor cousin of the health care sector.
The foundation was launched as a result of a personal family experience. I have a son with a mental illness; he has schizophrenia. My wife and I decided to help the mental health sector by creating this foundation.
At the outset, we found a family who had previously gone through the experience and who lost a son because of mental illness. They are a well-known family from Rouyn-Noranda, the Bradley family. They agreed to contribute to the cause by going back over painful memories, by lending their name to the foundation and by making a significant investment. At first, they invested $500,000 in the foundation. Five years later, they contributed $500,000 more. They have already invested $1 million in the foundation.
The other step was to form a diversified and credible board from the public. This board is made up of nine people. Afterwards, we met with all the organizations that work in the mental health sector in our region to see if they needed help and, if our help was welcome, what their challenges were and what projects they would like to work on in the future.
We also met with representatives from the local health care network, the regional health care agency at the time, to make sure that we would bring added value to the system. We did not want to make up for the potential budget cuts in the health care system.
The mission of the foundation is to help organizations that support those affected by mental illness with various chosen projects. We never give money directly to people. We have a project selection committee that is independent of the foundation's board. Once a year, after a project competition, the members of that committee make recommendations about the projects they suggest that we support.
The foundation has a unifying role. The foundation helps to open doors and it is an agent of change. We support the outstanding work the organizations have done. We also dare to talk to the public about mental illness. We see that community organizations are key elements in the success of our health care systems. As partners, they are indispensable for the well-being of the health networks. The foundation is the link between those networks and the community.
Since 2008, the foundation has redistributed over $450,000 to organizations in support of various projects. Early this spring, we started building 24 housing units in Rouyn-Noranda for people with mental health issues. The foundation has contributed $100,000 to the project.
We translated books and stories adapted for children, which deal with various aspects of mental illness. We also provide training. This year, we also held a fundraiser where we gave 600 books to everyone who bought a ticket. It is the book called Je suis une personne, pas une maladie by Luc Vigneault, who is a fairly well-known personality in Quebec. This is our way of reducing the stigma and encouraging people to talk about it, to seek help and to be open about mental illnesses, which are increasingly present in our communities.
That sums up what our foundation does.