A Sherwood Park counselling centre has received a significant donation from the provincial government.
On Monday (Apr. 10) the government announced that they would be donating $166,570 to the Saffron Centre.
The centre is a Sherwood Park-based organization that offers counselling to people impacted by sexual violence.
Roxane Tiessen, executive director of the Saffron Centre, says that this donation will help with their increasing waitlist.
"Our wait list has doubled in the last six months alone," said Tiessen. "We have clients waiting upwards of half a year for counselling sessions here."
Tiessen added that their waitlist has over 140 people waiting to receive counselling, around one-third of whom are children.
"We've seen people who have experienced sexual violence has been growing in the last few years. With the pandemic, there was perhaps some delay in people seeking help."
The Saffron Centre hopes to use the donation to hire another full-time counsellor, which should greatly help with their wait times.
"That's the primary usage for the funds, hiring a qualified therapist to work with clients," said Tiessen.
This funding comes as the provincial government announced $4 million in funding to go towards supporting sexual violence services throughout the province.