Resource centre launches foundation to save relationships
If you’re thinking about getting a divorce, a local resource centre wants you to chew on these numbers. “A divorce will cost you between $10-35,000 and you’re still going to need months, if not years, of therapy afterward,” says Diane Valiquette, founder of the Separation/Divorce Resource Centre (SDRC) in Blackburn Hamlet.
So if you think your marriage is salvageable, Valiquette says, you may want to consider couples’ therapy first.
And if the SDRC can successfully launch a new foundation, hundreds of people in Ottawa may qualify for subsidized therapy through what may be one of the most innovative counseling centres in Canada.
The centre has done a lot of pro bono work in the past, but as programs are expanded to include counsel for literally anyone affected by divorce, Valiquette says there is a need for more long-term sustainable funding.
For Don Mcmullin, the answer is the Rebuilding Relationships Foundation, launched earlier this year on the premise that people in the community will want to contribute because there is such a great need for the services.
“A lot of times people want the help the centre can provide, but they just can’t afford it, says McMullin, who heads up the foundation. “There is really nothing out there for the person who appears on paper to be financially solvent, but has their money tied up for one reason or another.
After all, there are few people in Canada these days who haven’t been affected by the break up of a marriage. The 2006 Canadian Census numbers released earlier this month prove that more Canadians than ever before are choosing the expensive and emotionally tumultuous path of divorce.
With more than half of the adult population claiming non-married status on their official records, the SDRC is finding a demand for services that go beyond the 12-seminar relationship building program that is its core.
“Young adults these days don’t have a clue how to do relationships,” Valiquette says. “They’re 18-24, their parents have been divorced; they’re not keeping relationships or they’re not happy in relationships.”
McMullin says supporting the centre and its programs will help create a healthier community.”
It may sound like a line, but he says the numbers show that people in healthy marriages are more functional in the workplace and more able to model healthy relationship behaviour to their children.
“We have been able to save couples by teaching them new communication and listening skills and by having them talk it out as opposed to duke it out,” he adds. “The onus is not only on recovery from divorce, it’s also on prevention.”
