Public school board talks family school liaison workers Tuesday
By RYAN MCCRACKEN on April 29, 2020.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken Family school liaison workers were at the forefront of Medicine Hat Public School Division’s regular board meeting Tuesday, which was held online over Zoom. COVID-19 has been keeping kids out of the classroom, but MHPSD district psychologist Claire Petersen says liaison workers have been putting in work to ensure every student has the support they need to thrive. “We have four main goals within our FSLW team,” Petersen informed trustees. “Their goals are first and foremost to bridge a connection between the school and the family, to connect families to outside agencies and resources. They provide one-on-one and group support for students and they become a valuable resource for students, families and staff. Those are sort of the four pillars we operate under. They’ve still been working within those four goals, it just looks slightly different.” Petersen added liaison workers have been connecting families to provincial and municipal resources to assist with mental health and financial issues in recent weeks, as well as ensuring food security in partnership with the local food bank. “The team has spent a lot of time with Celina (Symmonds) at the food bank, answering phones, helping navigate that, building hampers, really making sure our families have food during this time,” she said. “Knowing we feed a lot of our families in our schools through breakfast and lunch programs, we really wanted to have a community response to food stability.” MHPSD has also set up a secure virtual platform so one-on-one and group counselling can continue through the pandemic. Public drop-in spaces are offered through online platforms as well, providing students with access to healthy coping skills and the opportunity to socialize. “Many of our students are still accessing one-on-one counselling through that secure platform with their family school liaison worker. That’s working really well, in particular our middle school and high school students are really reaching out,” said Petersen, adding the secure virtual platform is “compliant with the College of Alberta Psychologists as well as the Alberta College of Social Workers.” Contact information for family school liaison workers can be found at the MHPSD website. Trustees also brought up a thank-you letter sent in by Lilian Wright Memorial Scholarship recipient Mason Muncey, and discussed a recent mini-conference which was facilitated by the Alberta School Council Association in early March. The conference was held in Medicine Hat and focused on school council tools, management and engagement. 11-10
