The services the Parent Link Centre provides are still needed in the community.
That is what Barrhead and District Family Community Support Services (FCSS) executive director Shelly Dewsnap learned through a public information session at the Seniors’ Drop-in Centre late last month. About 18 people attended the meeting.
FCSS hosted the session to find out what the loss of the service would mean to users and other stakeholders and to learn what they would like to see in a new program.
Parent Link Centres are provincially funded centres that offer services related to early childhood development, parent education, family support, child development screening, and also provide referrals to other local resources.
In November, the United Conservative Party (UCP) government announced they were ending the program at the end of March and replacing them with Family Resource Networks (FRN).
FRNs’ will cast a much broader net providing services for children from infants right up to 17 years old.
Besides expanding its potential base of users the government plans to do so for less money. Last year, the province provided Parent Link organizations $77 million. Minister of Children’s Services Rebecca Schulz stated that would be reduced to $65 million under FRNs, however, in the 63-page application document, the amount the government has allotted for Expressions of Interest (EOI) is listed as $57 million.
Dewsnap said the main purpose of the session was to help FCSS gather input on what services they would like to see an FRN provide as well as tell parents about the services that are still available to them through businesses, community organizations, or other government services.
After spending a brief period talking about what the loss of Parent Link would mean to parents, discussion moved to what assets there were in the community for youth.
And the good news, she said, is they were able to list a large number of assets both parents and youth have access to regardless of Parent Link or future FRN programs.
“There are after school clubs, whether they are through the schools and [Pembina Hills School Division], sports programs, from hockey, baseball, soccer to the martial arts, and swimming,” Dewsnap said, adding there are also two private dance studios providing assorted programming as well as children daycare providers. “Then there are the youth programs at local churches, art programs, as well as the youth organizations, like the Scouts, 4-H, cadets, and FCSS programming along with government agencies such as Alberta Mental Health, [Blue Heron Support Services Association], that all have some sort of youth component.”
The discussion then moved on to what initiatives they would like to see continue, if possible, under an FRN.
In addition to those who attended the session, Dewsnap noted that they also circulated surveys asking people why they used Parent Link and which programs they would like to see continue.
The top three reasons parents gave for accessing Parent Link Centre services during the session, is that it gave them a stronger sense of connection to the community, spending time with other parents and children and knowing they are not alone when it comes to dealing with parenting issues.
“People want to see more of the Triple P [positive, parenting, program] courses, caregiver capacity and well-being support, but the most requested were the coffee talk parenting sessions, the love and logic program and more walk-in support programming,” Dewsnap said.
In the child development category, Parent Link’s Movement and Motion and Mini Chefs programs scored the highest.
She added programs that helped parents connect with their peers were also scored well, including Mom and Dads’ Time-out programs as well as community-sponsored events such as the upcoming slot-car building and racing sessions.
When it comes to providing programs for parents and youth the survey pointed to the need to help families provide basic needs.
“Requests for transportation, supporting diverse family units and more mental health supports were some of the things our partnering agencies, parents and youth identified,” Dewsnap said.
FRN will be formed using the hub and spoke model. The hub is the organization hub is responsible for arranging the delivery of supports, programs, and services for local youth.
Organizations interested in providing FRN services can either apply as a hub, an organization that arranges for the full array of services. While spokes are the network of services, supports, and programming that children, youth, and families can access through the hub.
Barrhead FCSS plans to apply as a spoke and falls in the Northcentral Region. According to the FRN EOI document, the government expects that there will be four to five FRNs with $3.6 million in funding.
Potential impact on Barrhead parents
Barrhead Parent Link co-ordinator Rhonda Waggoner noted she is working with FCSS and Dewsnap to ensure Barrhead parents have access to similar services that Parent Link Centre provides.
However, she notes the parents of young children, even if their application is successful, might see a decline in programs.
Waggoner noted that any application, including that of spoke service, has to contain programming for all age groups from infants to 18 years old.
“It goes by percentages,” she said.
In the Family Resource Network, EOI document, it states that the Family and Community Resiliency Division has identified proposed program distribution should consist of 50 to 60 per cent for infants to six years old, 20 to 30 per cent for seven to 14 years old, and 20 to 30 per cent for 14 to 18 years old.
Waggoner said while Parent Link is required to keep statistics on how many clients it serves, et cetera (for example in 2019, from April 1 to March 31, Parent Link served 327 unique clients, of which a large percentage accessed programming on multiple occasions) the impact the program has had on the community is hard to quantify.
“When you see the help and impact it has on families, the growth of the children, the support that they receive is immeasurable,” she said.
