Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by so many needs happening all at once? Are you involved in many services at the same time but they’re just not working for you–or you can’t get service? Do you feel like your ideas for your family or yourself are not being taken seriously?
WrapAround is a life-planning process that puts you or your family in charge. It builds on what you can do, not what you can’t do. It wraps community around you when you are alone. It offers hope for a better life when life circumstances seem to be driving out all hope.
With WrapAround, you speak with a trained facilitator (either a community volunteer or a paid staff person) about your hopes and dreams for yourself and your family (if applicable). You and the facilitator then identify your gifts (your strengths) and your needs, and you pick a group of people who will form your WrapAround team–people who know you, like family and friends, and whose advice you trust. The team could include some or all of the professionals you are working with–that’s up to you. With the help of your team, you then decide on action steps for meeting your goals, based on your and the team’s strengths.
Seem far-fetched? It’s not. It’s being done all over North America, and the evidence shows that WrapAround is a best practice in helping people with complex needs to have a better life.
WrapAround Values
- Voice and choice
- No shame, no blame
- Nothing about us without us
- Strength-based, needs-driven
- Never give up (unconditional care)
- One plan
- Close to home
- Community counts
Shalem is actively engaged in delivering WrapAround services in community-owned, community-driven initiatives in Hamilton and Chatham-Kent. We support WrapAround Northumberland. We are also deeply involved in the WrapAround Association of Ontario and in national developments through Wrap Canada. And we are working with churches in various places in Ontario to develop and deliver faith-based WrapAround.
Watch the Shalem WrapAround video
WrapAround Video from Shalem Mental Health Network on Vimeo.
Read the story of one church whose sense of mission was transformed by WrapAround
CONTACT US
If you would like WrapAround, let us know. If you would like to become a trained WrapAround facilitator or volunteer, we provide the training. If you would like to start a WrapAround initiative in your community or congregation, let us know!
Elske De Visch Eybergen
Director of WrapAround Services
905.528.0353
elske@shalemnetwork.org
Elske provides facilitation, facilitator training, coaching and support for Hamilton WrapAround and for Chatham-Kent Neighbourlink’s WrapAround Relational Ministries program. She is Secretary of the WrapAround Association of Ontario.
Andrew Debicki
WrapAround Development Director
905.570.2086
awdebicki@aol.com
Andrew provides technical assistance to WrapAround initiatives around the country. Andrew is the Volunteer National WrapAround Development Director for Wrap Canada and Co-director of Wrap Canada’s Trainers and Coaches Group. He is a key architect of Wrap Canada’s emerging “made in Canada” WrapAround model.
June Zwier
Director of Mental Health Resources
905.623.9901
junez@shalemnetwork.org
June provides facilitator training and coaching to churches in the Durham Region interested in providing WrapAround for people with mental illness. June is a member of Wrap Canada’s Trainers and Coaches Group.
Mark Vander Vennen
Executive Director, Shalem Mental Health Network
905.531.7227
markvv@shalemnetwork.org
Mark was one of the first Canadians to implement WrapAround. He is Board Chair of Wrap Canada and Co-director of Wrap Canada’s Trainers and Coaches Group. He provides facilitator training and coaching services.
Andrew Hawkins
Coordinator of Chatham-Kent WrapAround Relational Ministries
wraparound@outlook.com
He is committed to the family-centered approach offered through WrapAround and it’s strategies and receives training in the WrapAround model through Shalem Mental Health Network.