Overview

Assist is a charitable organization whose mission is to enhance the immediate and long-term well-being of Alberta lawyers, articling and law students, and their families through confidential and non-judgmental psychological assistance, peer support, education and community. We also operate a Peer Support program where a lawyer or student dealing with an issue, professional or personal, is matched with a trained lawyer-volunteer with experience in or insight into that experience. We support lawyer well-being through education and awareness activities and through AssistCommunity, our suite of proactive programs through which we provide connection, activities and events to lawyers and law students around a common interest to combat loneliness and isolation, contributors to poor mental health. The vision as stated by the Board is to prevent stress in life and law from becoming distress, prevent distress from turning into crisis, and prevent crisis from becoming terminal or long-term debilitation. No identifying information is reported, only general statistics are tracked to ensure our programs and services are meeting the needs of members. Assist is governed by an independent Board of Directors, and operated by an Executive Director and Program Manager/Communications Specialist. We receive funding from the Law Society, the Canadian Bar Association, the Calgary Bar Association and many other donors and in-kind supporters throughout Alberta. While we are very grateful for this funding and in-kind support we respectfully emphasize our independence from these organizations. Our independence is one of the foundations of your confidentiality.