Mental-health program helps members build confidence through weekly news broadcasts

"Good afternoon and welcome to Hope Centre News," announces April Rafuse as she shuffles her papers before reading the events of the week.

Rafuse is one of the anchors of the weekly newscast broadcast out of the Hope Centre Clubhouse in Alberton.

The clubhouse is a psychosocial rehabilitation program of the Canadian Mental Health Association.

It helps adults living with mental illness by providing them with employment, education and transportation resources — and for the last five years has given members a creative outlet through the weekly newscasts. 

'Feel like they're not being judged'

Rafuse and her co-anchor Jared MacNeill have been the faces of the newscasts since they first launched.

Rafuse said she was nervous at first, but thought she'd try something new.

"I find it's helped me come out of my shell — to not be as nervous or anxious," she said. 

Hope Centre News has over 200 episodes, each of which is filmed, edited and uploaded by Jordan Churchill, a member at the centre.

The episodes consist of updates at the clubhouse, a science experiment — conducted by Churchill — and a few skits or songs.

It's given me a sense of purpose, it's given me a sense of — I belong.​​​​​​— Jesse Greenan, clubhouse member

Julia Ramsay, the program director at the clubhouse, credits the newscasts with contributing to its members personal improvement.

"Just seeing the way they've grown over the past few years has been pretty cool to witness."

She said when the episodes first started, there were only two or three people working on them.

Now, she said, they have a green screen and an iPad to film each segment on.

Rafuse lives with depression and anxiety and said being on camera, as well as being part of the centre, has helped her become more confident.

"This is a place of mental health," she said. "So, it's good for people with the problems that, like, we have with mental health. It's a place for them to come and feel like they're not being judged."

Jesse Greenan has been coming to the clubhouse for the last four years and does YouTube and movie reviews. 

He said the centre has helped him become more social and go back to school — things he said he wouldn't have done without becoming a member.

"They helped me push myself to talk to more people, be more open," he said.

"It's given me a sense of purpose, it's given me a sense of — I belong."

Ramsay said that's why the clubhouse was created. 

"Seeing people grow and especially seeing people succeed in something that they never believed they could do in the first place," she said.

"I always say that it's a members' clubhouse and the staff are just here to open the doors in the morning."

Rafuse said the group plans to continue the newscasts and hopes to do more interviews within the community in Alberton. 

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