Innovation Credit Union has recently embarked on a new partnership with H.O.P.E Learning Center focused on mental health and wellness.

CEO of Innovation Credit Union, Daniel Johnson provides some background on the new partner.

"H.O.P.E. Learning Center is an entity that works with people that are dealing with mental health issues. Really, what they have created is an environment where they bring together individuals and professionals and healthcare professionals to exchange and help each other out."

Johnson adds that the partnership felt like a really good fit for them. Innovation Credit Union is partnering as a sponsor of the Lunch Bytes series for this year. Johnson says the series has been very successful and given today's strain and stress with the pandemic it was a good fit. The series brings together people who are trying to figure things out from a mental wellness perspective and healthcare professionals and allows them to learn how a person can cope. 

The Lunch Bytes series is offered virtually every Tuesday during the noon hour and is free to anyone who wishes to attend. The series has already hosted 484 participants and has a 70% retention rate. 

In terms of how the sponsorship and partnership came to be, Johnson says the members of Innovation Credit Union played a large part in that decision. 

"We reached out to our membership and asked them of the 2-4% pre-tax profits that we give back to our communities on an annual basis, where do you people think we should allocate? When we got some feedback it became clear that mental wellness is one area that our members what us to support."

Guided by this membership feedback, Innovation Credit Union decided to donate $5,000 to the Canadian Mental Health Association-SK Divison which was further allocated to the H.O.P.E. Learning Center. 

The link to participate in the weekly Lunch Bytes series can be found here