Oct 25/'18 Green Shield supports wrym

​Green Shield Canada Supports Windsor Residence for Young Men

Photo - Wednesday, October 24 - Celebrating a successful four-year association are (L-R) WRYM Executive Director (pro bono) Greg Goulin, GSC Chief Human Resources Officer Mila Lucio, WRYM President Susan Freeman, GSC President & CEO Zahid Salman, and GSC VP of Planning & Business Solutions Cathy Morrison.

Green Shield Canada (GSC) has formally presented the Windsor Residence for Young Men (WRYM) with the final cheque of four yearly donations, bringing the total amount funded by GSC to $230,736. As with the previous cheques, the 2018 payment, totalling $57,684, supports WRYM’s Mental Health Navigation Program.

WRYM assists 50 young men each year to leave homelessness behind to build new lives. WRYM delivers individual counselling and teaches basic life skills such as hygiene, food acquisition and preparation, budgeting, social responsibility and work ethic. By teaching life skills, WRYM provides “our guys” with the independence necessary to walk away from abusive situations.

WRYM does not duplicate existing community services. Rather, it teaches young men how to access existing services in our community so that they can build new lives. Many have serious mental health challenges, and the WRYM Mental Health Navigation Program teaches them how to access vital mental health services.

Started in Windsor in 1957, GSC is Canada's only national not-for-profit health and dental benefits specialist, offering affordable group and individual programs. GSC is also active in funding community charitable causes. The GSC Community Giving Program (CGP) is an annual granting initiative that provide financial and organizational development support to Canadian registered charitable, not-profit, social enterprise organizations that deliver frontline health care to uninsured and underinsured people across Canada.

The CGP Program supports organizations that focus on oral health care, vision care, prescription drugs, disease management, mental health counselling, and have an aspect of social service navigation to help address the whole person, including housing support, healthy food programs, education, job training.

“We really believe in giving back to our community and supporting the great causes that exist here locally,” says GSC Chief Human Resources Officer Mila Lucio. “Certainly, the Windsor Residence for Young Men is one of those charities that we really want to be supporting strongly.”

“On behalf of the Windsor Residence for Young Men, I would like to thank Green Shield Canada for their longstanding support of our program,” says WRYM President Susan Freeman. “Mental Health issues are common in our community and this money will go a long way toward helping young men to deal with these issues.”

​In 2012, the Windsor Residence for Young Men began operations on the principle that the most effective way to integrate young men into the community was to assist them in accessing the community services specific to their needs. Collaboration with other agencies also allows WRYM to make the best possible use of funding dollars.