The Canadian Mental Health Association branch out of Rosetown is holding their Annual General Meeting at 6:30 PM at the Rosetown Civic Centre.

Program Director with CMHA Rosetown Carmen Ledding is excited to gather people into a room once again to talk about what services they have to offer. Monday night is a good chance to have a real conversation surrounding the mental health supports that exist in Rosetown for local and surrounding area residents.

Ledding explained further.

"What we are hoping to do is improve social awareness of what we do and move into the next phase of development. We are looking to have more involvement from the community, as far as the social awareness of mental health in general and how working on your mental health impacts your overall well-being."

Much like anything else, money is an important step to accomplishing anything.

"We need to look at fundraising, because CMHA Rosetown, it's funding is primarily through health grants, other grants, as well as donations. We need to try and improve our bottom line, just like a lot of community organizations. We are looking to add corporate sponsorships, as well as different fundraising opportunities within the community." 

Ledding is hoping success in that field could result in even more board members as well. 

"That's where we look to expand our board to different community members who might be able to assist (with things), so I can just focus on the programming itself."

Ledding feels there is good interest from the community at large to move in that direction. Eight current board members will be on hand tonight, but Ledding can already count on an additional 13 people from the public to come and network.

Two more people will be coming from social services in Rosetown according to Ledding, as well as representatives from Rapid Access Counselling, another mental health resource for West Central residents.

Ledding wants more than anything to see community members come together when it comes to mental health. It doesn't matter who's providing the services, because the most important thing is just having them available.

"It's quite clear that the supply for mental health resources in our region does not meet the demand. That is where rural people can come together and assist in building the community mental health program here at CMHA Rosetown. So, we can be stronger together."

Tonight's meeting begins at 6:30. The night will feature a roundtable introduction of all current board members.

Ledding hopes to see some new faces ready to learn what they can do, big or small, in the good name of mental health.