Overview
The FE Program is a voluntary program that provides families with supports and tools in the form of advocacy, counselling, parenting skills, budgeting classes, land-based activities, community initiatives, and referral services. This is child focused and family driven. It provides community-based supports and resources to empower the family unit and to prevent children from coming into care.
Support Services:
- Respite Services – is to prevent parents from getting overwhelmed with the daily tasks associated with children upbringing.
- Emergency Grocery Services – emergency groceries can be provided as a last resort where families run out of food and can not find any other way to provide food for their children.
- Homemaker Services (Babysitter) – when the parents are temporarily unable to care for a child in their home and the child needs care. A homemaker can be placed in the home to care for the child during the temporary period with the parent or guardian’s consent.
- Referral Services – to do referrals to other programs that the family may need. Example: Jordan’s Principle, NADAP, Maternal Child, Manitoba Housing, etc.
- Parent Aid – when a parent or guardian requires training in homemaking and childcare. The agency can make an agreement with the family to place a parent aide in the home for training.
There are other services that family enhancement can provide for families. Based on the assessment we do with families we determine what areas they need to enhance. A case plan will follow to set goals and a plan of action to reach the areas they need enhancing.
Community Initiatives:
This is generally a network of individual and partner organizations dedicated to improving the health and welfare of a community. It seeks to deal with and reduce the effects of social problems to improve peoples’ quality of life.
- Workshops – based on the assessment done with families we identify which workshops need to be created and addressed to families. Such as:
- Child Development and Mino Opikiyawasowin (Parenting)
- Budgeting Classes
- Grief Awareness
- Counseling – we have a counselor that provides counseling sessions with families individually or as a family group.
- Cooking Classes – are held at the family enhancement building to provide education on healthy eating, budgeting for groceries, preparing large amounts of foods, preserving, and cooking traditional foods.
- Family Activities – to promote family bonding; to develop and practice family planning.
