Touchstone Family Association

Touchstone is a non-profit community based social service agency. We have been providing services to Richmond and nearby areas since 1983.

Our services have primarily focused on preserving and enhancing family relationships. Through qualified staff, we offer a wide variety of professional services to the community.

Thank You!

Thank you to our donors, community partners and families for coming to the Touchstone Annual Open House on May 16th.

It is a great pleasure to see you all and convey our appreciation to you.

Our next event is the Annual General Meeting coming up September 25, 2012.

Touchstone's Open House is here!

Please join us for our annual Open House

Date: May 16, 2012
Time: 2:00pm – 5:00pm
Place: Suite #120 – 6411 Buswell Street, Richmond, BC V6Y 2G5

Refreshments will be served.

Please RSVP prior to May 14, 2012 by phone at 604.279.5599 or email info@touchfam.ca

Please bring a child's book in good condition for our library!

Click here to download the invitation

National Volunteer Week: Thank You & Activites

April 15-21, 2012 is National Volunteer Week!

a time when volunteers across Canada are celebrated and thanked for their contributions to our communities, our organizations and to individuals who have received their gift of time, energy and support throughout the year. Touchstone Family Association relies on dedicated individuals who volunteer and whose work and support are so much appreciated to make Touchstone's programs successful and enrich the lives of the community.

Touchtone would like to thank the volunteers who shared their energy and time in supporting our Eating Together Campaign, The Community Action Program for Children (CAP-C), the Day Program as well as the Restorative Justice Program.

Want to find out more or become involved?

Visit the Volunteer section of the Touchstone website to get information about volunteering and to apply at: www.touchfam.ca/volunteers.html

Volunteer Richmond Information Services is celebrating volunteers this week and have created a section on their website dedicated to appreciating volunteers. Check it out at: http://www.volunteerrichmond.ca/NVW Also on Volunteer Richmond's website our own Restorative Justice volunteers are highlighted in a blog spot called "How Do Volunteers Help Our Community Grow" along with other local non-profit organizations. Here's the link to read the articles: www.volunteerrichmond.ca/NVW/Blog.aspx

For more information about National Volunteer Week visit the website: nationalvolunteerweek.ca

$5.5 million helps local safety efforts go like gangbusters

April 4, 2012 - Touchstone gets Civil Forfeiture Grant

Recently, Touchstone was the recipient of a grant from the BC Civil Forfeiture Office. Excerpts from the press release are shown below. For the full press release please click HERE.

RICHMOND – A total of 185 community groups, local governments and policing agencies are sharing $5.5 million to help reduce youth involvement in gangs, prevent violence against women and children, and further crime prevention, thanks to a record year of civil forfeiture proceeds.

Justice Minister and Attorney General Shirley Bond made the announcement at Touchstone Family Association in Richmond, which received $210,000 to continue its prevention work with young people who may be at risk of joining a gang.

Touchstone's Street Smarts Project serves youth referred by probation officers, school counsellors, and past participants who themselves are now session leaders. Twelve-week group sessions and one-on-one mentorship focus on life skills, personal goals and barriers youth face in seeking jobs, academic success, and peers and friends who are not criminally involved.

Street Smarts has operated on a session-by-session basis, as funding has permitted, over the past two years. Lacking funding to develop and plan future sessions in advance and develop posters and other outreach materials has limited facilitators' ability to recruit and help local youth. Touchstone believes its grant from civil forfeiture proceeds will sustain the project for up to three years, allowing staff to focus their energies on serving up to 60 youth this year and offering summer programming for the first time.

For the full press release please click HERE.

Thank you!

In a world where large charities can afford to support their causes with national campaigns and events there are the very unique community based organizations who continue to respond to the everyday issues.

Everyday issues that, for a lot of families , through chance or circumstance, can prove to be overwhelming. Like us, these donors, are trying to make the world a better place –one family at a time. So when individuals and foundations seek us out to provide the financial support there is the added "value of validation" for the work that we are committed to. That we are not alone in our belief that family is the first community we belong to and the need to advocate for and provide barrier free support services.

Touchstone enjoys donations from many persons and organizations which allows us to provide those services and we do our best to recognize them. But there are individuals and organizations who do so without wanting the public recognition for their generosity. So in continuing to receive these "gifts" we thought we would just simply post a

THANK YOU ...

Touchstone's CARF Accreditation Completed

Happy New Year! Well the accreditation site visit has been completed.

Touchstone was extremely pleased with the results and the hard work put in by the two surveyors. They were thorough in their approach and provided some invaluable consultations. Their report will now be submitted to CARF for final review and we should have final report in about six to eight weeks at www.touchfam.ca. We will certainly be posting excerpts of it for information.

Touchstone remains strongly committed to this process as we believe not only does it challenge our organization to self improve but we, in turn, challenge our selves. We believe it makes us a stronger and more responsive service provider We know that this is reflected in the feedback we, not only get from persons we serve ,but the CARF team, as well. A highlight for us, at the conclusion of the visit, was the acknowledgement of the exemplary development and maintenance of community partnerships. We know that Richmond is unique and committed to the collaboration and cooperation that is needed to do this. Therefore, it is an acknowledgment to all of us and we thank all of those partners who participated in this survey and for their input. We also recognize the enthusiasm and commitment hat our staff make on a daily basis that adds even more value to our quality of service.

Should you be curious about CARF the organization we encourage you to visit them at www.carf.org.

Thank you from the Board of Touchstone

Introducing: Board of Directors 2011 - 2012

We are please to introduce to you our new Board of Directors 2011 - 2012, elected at our AGM on Sept 21, 2011.

Board of Directors 2011-2012

From left to right: Marie Salzl, Mahmood Awan, Pamela Toor, Shawn Issel, Kelina Kwan, Jocelyn Wong, Lisa Martella, Lawrie Portigal, Ian Chian.

2011 Stakeholder Survey Results

2011 Stakeholder Survey Results are published

To view results, click HERE

Congratulations to Carol Hardie!

Winner of the U-ROC Award!

Congratulations! Our own Carol Hardie is the winner of the U-ROC Award!

See Carol's Congratulations letter from the City of Richmond HERE

Congratulations to Mary Hobbs!

Runner-up: VoluntHero Contest

Congratulations! Mary Hobbs is the runner-up in the VoluntHero Contest put on by Volunteer Richmond Information Services.

To see Mary's contest submission, please click HERE. Scroll to Mary's name and click "View the Enry".

Restorative Justice Program gets 3-year extension

Restorative justice gets $95K city boost

The Restorative Justice program, run by Touchstone for the past 3 years was extended for another 3 years thanks to funding from the City. "City concillors are convinced that program is a valuable part of the city's community safety program and worth funding" reports the Richmond News.

To read more about this exciting news, follow the link below:

• Richmond Review: Restorative justice gets $95K city boost
• Richmond News: Restorative Justice program gets three-year extension
• Richmond News: Program serves justice well

To learn more about the Restorative Justice program, click HERE.

New Storyline Program !

Touchstone is proud to announce its new Storyline program made possible with the help of 2010 Legacies Now and the Richmond Public Library.

This library is available to all our clients.
Books are available on the honour system:

Families are able to take any book they wish.
No time limits on borrowing.
Should their child love the book and not want to give it up, we would appreciate another book being returned in its place.

The objectives of this program are to:

Develop a love of reading amongst our families
Inspire the idea of reading to and with children
Introduce the idea of joining the library, it may be easier than you think!
Let our families know about library programs they might like to attend
Provide registration forms and library cards for families who would like to join the library
Invite visitors and friends of to bring a book (in good condition), to be added to our library when possible

Further information is available from Georgina at (604) 207 5046

Touchstone in the news

Read our stories in the news!

The "Touchstone in the news" page is up! To read stories about us in the news, click here. Or click on "In the news" on the left.

We thank J.S. Salt for granting permission to use children’s quote from his book “Always Kiss Me Good Night: Instructions on Raising the Perfect Parent, by 147 kids who know”.

© Touchstone Family Association, Canada, 2009. Charity registration # 13129 0280 RR0001
Website design:The information Refinery

Events & News

Click the links below to see more detail.