A social development advocate is worried about the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic but encouraged by the way people in Williams Lake have rallied to help others.
Anne Burrill, who heads up Thrive Community Poverty Reduction Project, said with the province entering its second phase there are lots of people going back to work, but there are going to be lots of people that are not because of many reasons.
“There are some sectors that won’t be able to re-open or they will have a lot of limitations,” she said.
Depending on how long the government’s income support programs last, Burrill thinks by the fall it will be harder to sustain the kinds of supports that people need.
Contemplating that possibility is taking up many hours by Burrill spent in meetings over the phone with local agencies planning for the future.
“I have had days where I was on phone meetings, computer meetings or webinars, four or five hours a day. My daughter actually got me some wireless headphones so at least I can get up and walk around.”
The 2017 wildfires were traumatic for many people, and Burrill warned it will be important to pay attention to the impact of the pandemic on people’s mental health.
People who were already struggling with mental health issues such as anxiety and depression are now isolated and Burill said she is hearing that calls to all crisis lines and online resources are way up across the country.
Read more: Call volumes increase to CMHA Interior crisis line due to COVID-19
Seeing the community coming together in many ways during the pandemic is a positive factor, Burrill said.
She has been co-ordinating food hamper deliveries for the Salvation Army and helping with the Women’s Contact Society Good Food program.
“I tried to help with the emergency response as we recognized very quickly that some people had lost jobs without any opportunity to plan for it before all the government services came into place,” she said.
She got in touch with the Salvation Army to ask how she could help with emergency food supplies, helped with some food drives and reaching out asking the community to donate food and money through social media.
“They had to reduce their staff at the Salvation Army because a lot of their volunteers are elderly and at risk so they couldn’t continue to volunteer and they were doing delivery of all their food bank hampers instead of people picking them up.”
A routine is in place with a few people who deliver each day and there are some substitutes in case someone is not feeling well or is unable to do the deliveries.
“I think people want to help, especially people who aren’t experiencing the types of challenges that others are facing.”
She has also worked with Canadian Mental Health Association, Interior Health and BC Housing to help organize some isolation units for people who are homeless and have COVID-19 symptoms or test positive and don’t have a safe place to go.
“Lots of people are involved, but I’m helping to facilitate that,” Burrill said.
Checking on people who are isolated, including shopping for her parents who are in their 70s, has also been a priority.
“In my immediate family, I’m the only one that has been going out for us, which is a big shift because normally it is the other way around.”
Burrill was born in Bella Coola and raised in the Chilcotin where her family lived in a log cabin on a self-sufficient homestead for the first seven years of her life.
The family moved to Kleena Kleene One Eye Lake and lived there on another homestead with no indoor plumbing or electricity until she was 17.
“I worked for my dad as a teen, he had a summer trail riding business and I worked as a wrangler and camp cook from age 14 to 18 in the summers in the Coast Mountains in the Chilcotin.
I have lots of wonderful memories and stories from those days.”
Burrill and her husband Glen have a daughter Amelia, 16, and Finn, 10.
Read more: Employment solutions summit planned for Williams Lake
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