Community Investment and Employee Giving
Mental health is one of the primary focus areas of our Community Investment Program and our Employee Giving Program. Recognizing that most mental health challenges begin at a young age, we focus our contributions on youth, with the hope that early intervention and prevention programs will improve the lives of future generations.
In late 2020, Gibson announced a $1,000,000 multi-year donation – the largest contribution in our history – to provide mental health support to youth through a five-year partnership with Trellis Society for Community Impact (formerly the Boys & Girls Clubs of Calgary). By joining Trellis as their first ever Youth Mental Health Champion, Gibson is providing mental health support across a spectrum of programs, building resilience and community connections for youth, and providing mental health crisis intervention for youth who have experienced significant trauma.
This partnership is more than cutting a cheque to Gibson. Through our Employee Giving Program, our employees have donated their time by volunteering 2,867 hours with Trellis since the partnership was announced (and through a pandemic!). A key volunteer highlight from this partnership includes constructing and landscaping Gibson Garden at the Trellis Renfrew location, a thoughtful outdoor space for youth and staff to decompress and improve their mental wellbeing. Gibson volunteers also constructed a Little Free Library and hosted a book drive specifically for books that improved their mental health. Gibson volunteers do annual maintenance at the Gibson Garden and ensure the Little Free Library is touched up and stocked with books.
Other volunteer activities of note were making mental wellbeing packages for Trellis vulnerable youth and creating face shields for residents of the Trellis Avenue 15 shelter. Gibson’s operations and engineering team sponsored 72 children in foster families over the holidays by hosting a gift drive, wrapping the presents and learning more about becoming foster parents. Recently, Gibson employees contributed hundreds of items to a formal attire drive benefitting Trellis’ Grad Town initiative, which ensures youth have a dress or suit to wear to their high school graduation!
Supporting Employee Mental Health
We understand the profound impact that mental health can have on the safety and well-being of our employees. In addition to planning mental health-related activities for our employees during Mental Health Week and throughout the year, we offer a range of programs designed to support our employees’ physical, mental and financial wellness. Whether they need assistance with managing stress, require family support or have other health and wellness needs, we are committed to helping our employees thrive. We have also established partnerships with a variety of Canadian and US-based organizations that provide mental health support to our employees and their families.
