PHOTO SUBMITTED - Carlee EaglePlume, a youth program coordinator at the Miywasin Centre, makes craft kits to be given out. Miywasin was one of fourth local organizations to win contracts from the provinces to provide child and family services.
Local child and family service providers found out earlier this month who got funding under the Alberta government’s new framework, but the global pandemic has meant there’s still a lot to be figured out for one of them.
Of the four Medicine Hat-based providers to win bids – which were announced last week – three say they’re up and running either previous programs or new ones.
The other – McMan Youth, Family and Community Services Association – is undergoing such a drastic change that it won’t be able to announce anything for the foreseeable future.
“What the whole network is going to look like over time, we don’t really know,” said Tracie Mutschler, the executive director for the south region at McMan. “Our goal initially before all this hit was we would be April, May to get up and running.
“Now, (due to) COVID they’re looking in to summer. It would be nice to start up when school starts up, so the hope would be fall if we could pull something together for that.”
Previously, McMan ran the Parent Link centre in Medicine Hat which catered to children under six years old and families. Parent Link tried to hold a going-away party of sorts before closing at the end of March, but it was cancelled due to the pandemic. Mutschler says their new contract only targets 7- to 11-year-olds.
“This is completely different,” she said.
Alberta cancelled 400 contracts and grants for child and family support services last year, aiming to save $15 million by moving to a hub and spoke model known as family resource networks.
Bridges Family Programs is now a hub, while the Medicine Hat YMCA and Miywasin Centre received contracts which extend some of their smaller niche services.
“We are thrilled to be offering these much needed services in the community and to work with the community,” wrote Bridges executive director Lauren Forrier in an email to the News. “We will be offering new hub services and parenting education groups in the region and will continue to offer all of our usual programming in the community.”
The YMCA’s contract is for their early intervention program for young mothers, which operates out of their facility in Crescent Heights. YMCA executive director Sharon Hayward said 17 youth accessed the service last year.
“The program we’ve provided provides life skills support for pregnant or parenting teens and young adults,” said Hayward. “They’ve got a teacher on site and they can finish high school while they’re there.”
Miywasin’s Jeannette Hansen doesn’t expect much of a change in her organization’s programs, which include youth development and caregiver/parent education. They’ve been using videoconferencing to keep in touch with aboriginal families throughout the pandemic and staff have made craft kits to be given out, among other activities.
“We’ve had to trim things down a bit, get other sources of funding and we’ve been fortunate to get it,” said Hansen, noting federal funding has helped with their counselling program. “We won’t have a huge impact, I think it’ll be better in the long run.”
But there remain question marks with the overall system, and advocacy groups are concerned. The Medicine Hat Early Childhood Coalition is among the groups that lost its funding during the overhaul, and chair Jennifer Usher says its future is up in the air.
“I am excited to see what comes out of the family resource network, I’m excited to work with Bridges and McMan and the other organizations that got those bids,” said Usher, noting the coalition’s roving gyms project will continue regardless. “We don’t have a co-ordinator. It really puts us in a tricky spot right now because we’re not having that ongoing communication with those agencies.”
The hope is that once pandemic-related restrictions ease, more can be figured out and more services can be made available.
“We can do curriculum planning, service planning,” said Mutschler. “But most of that we would want to do in conjunction with staff. So until we’re able to hire staff, there’s not much that we’re doing at this point.”
