Free Counselling Programs (BC)
REACH delivers accessible free counselling programs to university students and teachers in British Columbia through on-site, off-site, and virtual sessions. We’re scaling to other provinces and professional services to support more communities.
Providing over 20,000 free counselling sessions since 2012
Providing free counselling to all teachers in Central Okanagan
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is eligible for counselling?
Our goal is to provide lived-experience counselling through our service partnerships to reduce the number of sessions it takes to make a connection with the counsellor. Currently, our programs offer free counselling to Teachers and University students in BC who have special access services to specialized counsellors through our service partnerships.
Is counselling free?
Counselling provided through our programs will not cost the client any money up front. There may be additional no-show or cancellation fees charged by our service partnerships.
Are your services confidential?
Yes, all sessions follow professional confidentiality standards.
Do I need a referral?
Those eligible for free counselling underneath our programs may be asked to confirm their eligibility.
How many sessions can be booked?
The number of session bookings will vary based on what is determined with the counsellor or availability. However, our Programs aim to provide no limit to the number of counselling sessions that Teachers and University Students can schedule for themselves.
Who provides the counselling sessions?
All sessions are led by registered and trained professionals. Each counsellor will be a Registered Clinical Counsellors, possess credentials to show their lived experience specialization (ex. Teachers would have their B.Ed C.E.A., M.Ed or other teaching certification along with references to show their experience as an educator/teacher in the classroom).
Who can partner with REACH?
Service and Impact partnerships can come from anywhere! We partner with schools, businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations. However, for Service Partnerships, we seek out and collaborate with qualified organizations and experts who bring credibility and capacity to help serve the unmet need we focus on for each Program. We partner with schools, businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations. For Impact partnerships, we ask for a commitment to ongoing communication for us to provide updates, data reporting, discuss growth and help answer any questions.
Do you offer both long-term and short-term partnerships?
Yes! We welcome one-time collaborations and ongoing partnerships. However, we would prefer to establish long-standing partnerships to ensure the continued success with growth in our Programs.
What is the Program vs. Admin allocation for donations?
We are a lean organization with loads of experience and talent in developing systems and scalable structures. This allows us to keep our Admin costs lower and allocate more to our Programs. Each year, our minimum allocation target is as follows:
Program Delivery (75%) — Counsellor services, supervision, training.
Operations/Admin (25%) — Leadership, financial accountability, communications.
Who handles partnerships and collaborations?
Mike, our Head of Operations and Partnerships would be the best person to speak with. Please email Mike at mike@reachingcanada.com
Do you recognize sponsors?
We love recognizing our Impact Partners for all of their generous support! With their permission, we will recognize them throughout our reports, events, and online.