Joanne McQuarrie, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter | [email protected]
High quality prevention and early intervention services for families with children zero to 18 years of age from Community and Family Services (CFS) in Jasper continues.
The organization was successful in securing funding from the province to work under the newly-formed West Yellowhead Family Resource Network (FRN) as a 鈥榟ub鈥� for the region. The contract is for three years.
Kathleen Waxer, director of CFS, explained with the new 'hub and spoke' model of service delivery, Jasper will coordinate services in the West Yellowhead region as the FRN hub, for not only Jasper, but Hinton, Edson, Yellowhead County and Grande Cache.
"We're appreciative and honoured that the other social agencies in the region had confidence in our ability to perform the hub function," she said.
"Jasper has 'spokes' as well," Waxer noted. "The spokes are the direct services to the public."
That includes programming. For example, a summer program for teens in grades seven to 12, Twisted Tuesdays has started.
"We're doing it in a safe way," Waxer assured. "They're following the public health guideline protocols. Last week they went rafting. There's the KAOS [Kids Adventures of the School-Year] program for younger kids, elementary school age. It's a safe way to do something fun."
This funding replaces CFS鈥� long-standing contracts with Children鈥檚 Services which were terminated as of March 31.
And this new model of delivery comes with less funding.
"We have one less outreach worker in Jasper as a result of the new funding system," Waxer said.
Instead of six there will be five outreach workers now. Two of them serve adults and seniors, and three assist families.
Waxer said: "It means less programming. We used to have lots in the Parent Link room, five days a week. When COVID is over, our plan is to have some programming in the [now former] Parent Link room."
The CFS office closure in March due to the pandemic and having less funding to work with has presented challenges, but the Jasper team is prevailing.
"It's not the way we planned, but that's how it rolled out," Waxer said.
"We've been fully active through the pandemic, doing our best to ensure the residents of Jasper are well-served.
鈥淲e make sure to understand emerging issues. People lost their jobs and not everybody knew they were eligible for unemployment insurance, so we were ensuring everybody had food security, housing security.鈥�
During COVID-19, CFS adapted most of its programs to run online and introduced new sessions.
Outreach worker Maggie McDowell launched a virtual mom-to-be support group called Let鈥檚 Breathe, and weekly Baby & Me sessions, KAOS, Rec Room and Youth Community Helpers were held online.
Adult Community Helpers and Coffee Connections went virtual too, and CFS organized a Seniors鈥� Week parade of emergency service vehicles, the seniors鈥� bus, municipal vehicles, COS workers and the Jasper Youth Community Helpers on bikes.
"Even with funding reduction, and with creative reassignments, we're able to continue to serve people in Jasper," Waxer said.
"We continue to offer programs and services [including] family support and strengthening parenting knowledge - it's a course you can take.
鈥淲e also help families make connections to community support, help parents to optimize their child's growth and development."
Support is offered over the phone, and via virtual means. As well, CFS is beginning to do some in-person services - by appointment. Call 780-852-2100 to connect with an outreach worker.
