VICTORIA -- Earlier this year, Felicia Mazerolle started the “BIPOC Therapy Fund,” which aims to provide a year of free counselling services to 10 people who are Black, Indigenous or people of colour (BIPOC).

The idea came to Mazerolle over the summer, after months of being bombarded by news and social media posts about the death of George Floyd and other highly publicized deaths of people of colour.

Mazerolle had also been in several situations where she was racially profiled and a victim of racism. Feeling emotionally overwhelmed by it all, she decided to seek counselling.

“It really put me in a dark space,” she says. “I started looking for a therapist and found out that it’s pretty hard to find a therapist of colour – which was important for me at the time – and it’s really unaffordable. It’s a luxury really.”

Having lived in Victoria for four years now, she knew of others in the same situation and was appalled by the cost and lack of services specific to the BIPOC community.

Mazerolle managed to get some counselling sessions under her belt and began to feel better. She found peace in skateboarding and being outdoors, using them as a form of therapy as well.

Looking for a way to help others, Mazerolle talked with friends in a local group, Capital Black, about what they could do to give back to the community. One focus of the group is mental health, so she suggested the idea of free counselling for the BIPOC community.

“One of the biggest concerns and challenges of that was funding,” says Mazerolle. “So, I just put the feelers out there in the skateboarding community to see if they would be willing to help fundraise. It just went remarkably well. I couldn’t be happier, really.”

Through those connections and with the help of some local businesses, the campaign has raised $18,000 of its $48,000 goal since September.

Armed with the knowledge and experience of finding a counsellor that worked for her, the skateboarder says she is determined to reach her goal to provide 10 BIPOC community members with one counselling session a week for a year.

Mazerolle says that access to mental health support, therapy, and counselling can make a huge difference in the lives of these people, like it did for her.

With fundraising well under way and word getting out about the cause, Mazerolle says she may create a GoFundMe page to help get the rest of the way to the goal.

With so many people helping out so far, Mazerolle says, “It’s so nice to know that a whole community has your back.”

If you are interested in getting involved, want more information or to donate, you can reach Mazerolle at bipoctherapyvic@gmail.com.