ATHABASCA — It has been almost a year since the Northern Lakes Family Resource Network in Athabasca was borne from a new hub and spoke model instituted by the Alberta government, but with everything else that has happened in the last year, it has been a challenge to stay connected.
Family and Community Support Services manager Debbie Wood and HUB coordinator Nadine Wiselka-Tomschut are looking forward to the doors being open again, and the new programs that are being offered, some of which are designed for older than usual participants. Programs are still only available by by appointment, but pre-registration is now open to allow for a staggered entry starting April 6.
“We know that it's been difficult for people to connect and it's been really difficult for us to launch new types of services during this, and because the Family Resource Network started April 1 of last year in the midst of all this, we're still trying to get that information out there,” Wood said.
Wiselka-Tomschut has been working on a newsletter and a resource guide for the entire network area which includes Athabasca, Lac La Biche, Boyle, Rochester, Calling Lake, Grassland, Plamondon, Caslan and surrounding areas, to give people an idea of the services and programs that are available.
“Ones that are continuing that were started (in January) or so, are Tiny Tunes and Read-a-Book,” Wiselka-Tomuschat said. “And those are geared to the younger kids — six months to six years.”
Tiny Tunes is once a week on Fridays and Read-a-Book is twice on Tuesday; morning and afternoon. Move and Learn is also offered on Wednesday mornings.
“A new program that we have coming up is Move and Learn and it's for children ages two to six and their parents and caregivers,” she said. “We also have one that's called Remember Me and this one there's two available times in the evening and afternoon. And that's for 16 and up,”
Remember Me will cover things like mindfulness, journaling and self-care, she said, and it is available Tuesday afternoon or evening and Thursday afternoon.
“Starting the second week of March, there will be another series of programs added,” Wood said. “So, we're looking at things like problem solving, positive parenting, laughter yoga, some self-care things and family skill building things and some of those things that will help people deal with some of the pressures that they're dealing with right now.”
Being a virtual world, it is a difficult time for people to connect and the staff are hoping some of the new programs will fill some of that void. Part of that is asking for members to join a support committee who would advise on things like program planning, advertising, evaluations and more.
“So, that's starting in April,” said Wood. “So far, they have about five or six people interested in being involved on that, but if anyone else is interested they can contact the Family Centre to be a part of that. They're looking at the meeting probably four to five times a year, but that community input is really important.”
Some of the programs will be age specific, but they are adding programs for older age groups.
“I think one of the things we're trying to get people to understand is with our new programming we're not dealing with just that zero to six age group, which was mainly our focus previously,” Wood said. “So, we are doing zero to 18 with the Family Resource Network.”
And now that restrictions have eased a bit more, they will hopefully be able to meet in limited numbers, but for now when the doors open, it will be by appointment only to stagger when people will be in the facility. Cyber programs will still be available.
"One of the other things that that we're talking about launching officially is called Just Checking In,” Wood said. “So, it's a type of connection for people who want to have somebody connect with them during the month on a regular basis.”
Other upcoming programs include Salsa Tots, infant massage and laughter yoga.
"Mandy Smith is our is our instructor for that; she's actually taken the training to facilitate our laughter yoga,” said Wood. “Whether it's something that's natural or you make yourself laugh and once you start and you look at each other — because Mandy's done it previously for staff — you do really start laughing. You know, it's that power and how much better people feel when you actually get to laugh.”
The salsa dancing will teach dance and movement while singing, playing and using imagination, and it is an opportunity for parents to do that with their children while watching other kids in the group on the screen, and hopefully at some point in-person.
“Our individual family play areas, we left them set up,” said Wood. “We were hoping we wouldn't need them this year, but the way it's looking that may be the way we'll have to program again.”
