Patricia Arango, executive director at the Sendero Centre, speaks at a renaming celebration event on Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Josh Hall | @Vancan19

SENDERO CENTRE -- FORMERLY CASASC

Red Deer-born ‘Magnets of Hope’ project to help Albertan post-secondary students in times of crisis

Nov 1, 2024 | 4:03 PM

Red Deer’s newly minted Sendero Centre — formerly the Central Alberta Sexual Assault Support Centre — was the site for excitement on Friday.

Staff, community members, as well as Alberta’s ministers of children and family services, and health, were on hand for the formal changeover which was announced last week.

The Sendero Centre has been operating in Red Deer and serving central Alberta for 38 years; Executive Director Patricia Arango hopes the new moniker will be more welcoming, and serve as less of a reminder of what a victim has experienced.

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Now, the centre is launching a new campaign to both raise funds for its programming, and give people a lifeline should they need it.

Magnets of Hope was created by a young Red Deerian named Gracie George, who is currently a post-secondary business student in Ontario.

The magnets came out of a community impact project she was required to submit as part of her studies, and will soon help thousands in times of crisis.

“This is the first project under our greater banner of Giving Hope, which we launched in spring 2024. Giving hope can be done in any manner, really, and in this case, the magnets will give students across Alberta the know-how of contacting our support line,” said Jennifer O’Shea, fund development at Sendero.

The magnets are now available to purchase online for $5 each — while the money will support the centre, magnets will be pooled to be distributed during post-secondary orientations around Alberta in a year from now.

Each magnet will bear local art on the front, and the number to Sendero’s phone and text crisis line on the back.

In the coming weeks, Sendero will be selling them at physical locations for people who want to gift one or have one for themselves.

“Students are known to be at a much higher risk of being exposed to sexual assault and sexualized behaviours on campus,” O’Shea added.

“There are over 200,000 youth registered in post-secondary education across Alberta, and we’re trying to sell enough of these that everyone can get one at the beginning of next school year.”

According to 2020 numbers from Statistics Canada, 45 per cent of women and 32 per cent of men at Canadian post-secondaries experienced unwanted sexualized behaviours.

Those who purchase four or more magnets at a time will qualify for a charitable tax receipt.

The Sendero Centre’s call or text 24-hour crisis line is 1-866-956-1099.

Magnets of Hope can be purchased at giving-hope.ca, and you can follow @SenderoCentreRD on social media for updates on where to buy them, other than online, in the near future.