So what is AiMHi all about?
First off, the name is not an acronym.
According to executive director Bill Fildes, the two lower-case "i's" in the name symbolically represent people who aim high to achieve things in their lives.
The AiMHi Prince George Association for Community Living is a charitable non-profit organization which receives most of its funding from Community Living BC. It was formed in 1957 by a group of concerned parents who wanted to end the institutionalized approach to mental health care. They wanted their children taught in the public school system, with the opportunity to live in supported homes in the community. They pushed for a facility that would teach their children life skills, provide employment opportunities and daytime activities, and offer family support services such as respite care, all of which are are now integrated in the AiMHi program.
AiMHi offers parents access to programs that provide crisis intervention skills geared toward children who are unable to communicate their needs or wants and tend to act out in anger. The infant development program provides training and activities for parents to help children under age 3 develop skills. AiMHi also lends skill-building educational toys to families and School District 57 teachers.
In Prince George, 41 AiMHi houses provide supervised living support for about 100 residents. AiMHi employs about 440 people (38 on the management team) who serve the needs of about 1,000 people annually.
AiMHi has a force of 45 workers on its outdoor landscaping and snow removal crews, has 20 staff in its kitchen, and 40 supported clients who work in its information systems department, scanning and shredding documents. People work in the AiMHi store and there are about 100 members of the organization involved in social enterprises. There are in-house self-advocacy services and an employment assistance program.
In addition to its corporate and private donor sources of funding, AiMHi supplements its programs by accepting clothing donations at three locations that are then taken and sold by weight to the downtown Value Village store. The society is planning to expand its community clothing collection program to provide residential pickup service.
