Summer Issue - Westcoast Family Centres

News
SUMMER 2012 / IN THIS ISSUE
Message from the ED
2
Program Updates
Family T.I.E.S
Education Programs
Healthy Relationships
2
2
3
3
Kidsworld Passport
to Summer Program
3
Upcoming Events
Scotia Bank Half-Marathon
Annual General Meeting
WCF Community Day
4
4
4
4
Thuy’s Story
4
BUILDING BLOCKS FOR BETTER LIVES
MAPLE RIDGE
22323–119th Avenue
Maple Ridge, BC V2X 2Z2
NORTH SHORE
301–255 West 1st Street
North Vancouver BC V7M 3G8
TRI-CITIES
2062 Manning Avenue
Port Coquitlam, BC V3B 1L6
VANCOUVER NW
201–460 Nanaimo Street
Vancouver BC V5L 4W3
VANCOUVER NE/HEADOFFICE
101–2780 East Broadway
Vancouver, BC V5M 1Y8
Westcoast Family Centres 101–2780 East Broadway, Vancouver, BC V5M 1Y8 / T. 604.254.5457 / F. 604.254.6169 / www.westcoastfamily.org
Summer 2012 / Page 2
Agency News
Message from
the Executive Director
Ann Kutcher
It’s hard to believe we are approaching summer
and mid-year!
The past few months have been busy negotiating
contracts with our primary funders the Ministry of
Child and Family Development (MCFD). Our contracts have required numerous hours of discussion and reconfiguring to ensure that we are able
to sustain our targets over a one-year period and
one that does not include any new dollars.
For several months we have been working on our
fiscal budgets and preparing for our year-end
audit, reviewing all financial changes and challenges that have taken place over the past year.
Our new Family T.I.E.S. fee for service program is
still in its infancy and as we move along we are
responding to inquiries and requests for service
in the areas of individual and family counseling,
supervised parent-child access, specialized therapeutic services such as Parent Child Interaction
Therapy (PCIT), mediation and in-home parent
coaching. We have a roster of qualified staff with
years of experience providing services to families
and children in our community. We look forward
in great anticipation to growing this service in our
communities across the lower mainland.
In other program news, a new group education
program for Vietnamese clients, called “Building
a healthy relationship” was recently introduced
in Vancouver. Facilitated by our family counsellor, Joanna Duong, this program has received
lots of support and positive feedback from the
participants.
On May 2nd, we held an agency wide staff
professional development day with a focus on
training in diversity in the workplace and in the
community, working with clients with diverse
backgrounds. The day comprised of a keynote
speaker, Alden E. Habacon, Diversity and Inclusion
specialist, who discussed the idea of intercultural
mobility or fluidity-the ability to maneuver through
and around various cultural spaces. He talked
about the changing mosaic in Canada and its
importance in social sustainability.
Other workshops included: Working with
Refugees Who Have Experienced Trauma facilitated by Bayron Figueroa and Alexandra Charlton
from Settlement Orientation Services (SOS) and
Working with Men in Relationships with a
cultural context, facilitated by Mario Testani
who specializes in working with couples, anger
management and supervises counsellors who
provide clinical services to families.
We are happy to announce the development of
our new website which has been under construction with Seven25, our marketing consultants for
the past several months. The new website with a
brand new look,will be launched at our upcoming
AGM in June.
On that note, I would like to take this opportunity
to invite you to our Annual General Meeting on
June 27th, 2012. Our AGM this year will focus
on digital communication and social media and
our keynote speaker will be Merlyn Horton from
Safe Online Outreach Society who will speak
about Social Media: Agency Challenge or Agency
Nightmare? More details can be found in the
upcoming events section on page four of this
newsletter.
Program Updates
Family T.I.E.S. Program (Trust, Innovation,
Education, Support)
Kate Saunders is a registered clinical counsellor with over 10 years of experience as a parent
educator and coach. She specializes in working
with individuals, families and children providing
specialized therapeutic services at Westcoast
including Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT).
Kate Saunders
PCIT is appropriate for any birth parent,
foster parent, step-parent, guardian, or
caregiver who is concerned about their
child’s behaviour.
Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an
empirically valid counselling program for families
that focuses on reducing behavioural issues,
improving parenting skills, and enhancing
relationships.
PCIT uses a unique, concrete approach to teach
parents and children new and positive ways
to relate to each other. Parents learn how to
encourage positive behavior as well as effective discipline strategies tailored to their child’s
behaviour and temperament. In each coaching
session, the parent and child play together in
one room while the PCIT counsellor coaches the
parent through an earpiece from a separate
room. The therapist helps the parent practice and
master new skills to address their child’s problem
behaviours.
Who Can Benefit from PCIT?
PCIT is an appropriate intervention anytime a
parent or guardian feels their child’s behaviour
has become unmanageable. The PCIT program
at Westcoast Family Centres is offered for children aged 2 through 8 years old.
PCIT has been used successfully with:
+ Trauma and post-traumatic stress
+ Attachment difficulties
+ Children who are verbally or physically
aggressive
+ Defiance and stubbornness
+Hyperactivity
+ Chronic child behaviour problems
+ Child abuse or neglect
+ Children with antisocial behaviour or who have
trouble playing with other children
Summer 2012 / Page 3
Notable Events
Community Education Programs
(North Shore)
Shahla Noorani, has intensive
Education/Training in counselling with a degree in psychology.
She has been working as a Family
Counsellor with WFC for the past
6 years. She has profound knowledge in cultural diversity and over
25 years of experience as a parent
educator and a parent of 3 boys.
Shahla Noorani
Shahla has been providing various
Parenting Groups in the Persian
language in the North Shore.
Raising a Teenager focuses on issues parenting teenagers. Topics of
discussion include i.e. how to avoid power struggles; rules and boundaries;
chores and responsibilities; curfews, consequences and why they
don’t work and discussion on out of norm behaviours etc.
Other education group focuses on raising middle age children (8–12 yrs.)
and looking at issues and concerns in parenting this age group.
From January of this year, Shahla has been offering a parents’ support
group in which the parents share their concerns and problems with each
other. This support group has been received very well by all attending
participants. Issues, such as, parents’ reactivity and anger management,
raising teens in a different cultural values, peer pressure and self-steam,
how to be your kids’ friend and still be a parent, are among a few chosen
topics for these groups.
Some of the comments from participants include
“these sessions are great, wonderful, useful, friendly and most important it
is problem solving”
“I learnt how to be a friend with my teenager . . .”
“I learnt how to work with my family . . .”
Building a Healthy Relationship (Vancouver)
Joanna Duong, a Family Counsellor at Westcoast for the past eight years,
has been providing various parenting group workshops geared to the
Vietnamese community over the years. One of the most recent workshops
is called Building a Healthy Relationship. A weekly three-hour session
started on April 13th and ended on May 25th. The workshops were regularly
attended by many parents who had an opportunity to have a discussion on
topics such as:
+ Understanding the impact of witnessing family violence on your children.
+ Couple conflicts and Resolutions.
+ Anger and Stress Management/Coping Skills.
+ Positive Communication Skills.
+ Parents Self-care, Building Support System and Community Resources.
Several of the parents brought their children who were kept busy with play
and arts and crafts activities headed by our child minders Jeannet Wong
and Edda Mejia.
We are pleased have had a lot of positive feedback from the parents
and Social workers. Social workers from RFD, RFJ and RHJ attended the
“graduation” party and presented the attending families with Certificates of
Completion. The facilitators, Joanna Duong and her team, Lam Dang and
Huong Thi Le are thankful to the participants and Westcoast for enabling
them to offer this
program to the
Vietnamese community and help
make a positive
difference in their
lives.
Westcoast Staff with MCFD Social Workers
Kidsworld Passport to Summer Program
Some clients of Westcoast Family Centres are
fortunate enough to benefit from the generosity
of Brian Freestone, president of the Kidsworld
Passport to Summer program, a unique program
offering children between the age of 4–15, accompanied by a parent/guardian, an opportunity to
explore their community together, all summer
long, doing a number of things that they wouldn’t
usually get a chance to do. Some of these children
were chosen to participate in this program, if they
were part of a family with limited financial means
which would not enable them to be involved in
such extracurricular summer time activities.
Staff from all of our 5 sites recommended these
children and we were able to secure a reasonable rate with Brian so that they could take part in
up to 65 days of activities (a different event/activity every day of the summer) over the months of
July and August. 24 children on our caseloads will
enjoy sport, art, culture, nature and science in the
coming months.
Just a sample of the activities available to these
kids include: Harbour Cruise, Playland, Theatre
Under The Stars,Stanley Park Horse-Drawn Tours,
Burnably Village Museum, Maplewood Farm,
Vancouver Police Museum, Mountain View
Conservation & Breeding Centre, Thunderbird
Show Park, Raptors Ridge Birds of Prey, Westcoast
Railway Heritage Park, Stanley Park Miniature
Railway & Klahowya Village, Honeybee
Centre Farm, Bear Creek Park Train, Britannia
Mine Museum, Rogers Arena Tour, Canadian
Military Museum, CTV Television Studio Tour,
CircusWest—CirKids Performance, Kidtopia
Sandcastle Contest
We would like to thank Brian for his generosity
and wish the participating children a fun-filled
and memorable summer.
Summer 2012 / Page 4
Events & Stories from the Field
Upcoming Events
Scotiabank Half-Marathon/5K Fundraising
24 June 2012
We are happy to report a great response from
registrants who have joined our team and are
participating in our fundraising event on Sunday,
June 24th. For people who have not registered,
there is still time available for you (and your family
& friends) to come out and enjoy the day with us!
Register now by going to vancouverhalf.com. If
you need any registration help, please contact
Jan or Freeza. We are here for you. And remember, you do not have to be a runner. Bring your
coffee mug and stroll the 5K course. It will be
beautiful in June!
Through all of this, please keep in mind the
families we work with. Many are struggling to
make ends meet and to be the best families they
can be. Our goal is to raise a significant amount
of money for the new “Building Blocks for Better
Lives Fund”. These funds will go directly back to
help with the children and parents needing extra
support, services and programs. You can help by
spreading the word! All donations are welcome
and are tax deductible. Anyone can help by:
1. Sponsoring a runner on the Westcoast team.
2.Donating directly to Westcoast at the
Scotiabank website.
3.Donating to Westcoast on our Agency website
at www.westcoastfamily.org
4.By bringing in cash to a runner, a staff member, or even to our table on race day.
We will happily and graciously accept it all!
Together, we can make an impact.
2012 Annual General Meeting
27 June 2012
WFC 27th Annual General Meeting is being held
on Wednesday, June 27th, 2012 at the Executive
Hotel and Conference Centre in Burnaby at
2:30–5:00pm.
WFC Community Day at Hastings Racecourse
22 September 2012
Once again WFC is proud to announce that we
have been selected to host a community day
fundraising event at the Hastings racecourse. It
will be a fun-filled and exciting event with silent
auction, games and prizes. All proceeds and
donations will go towards our “building blocks
for better lives fund” which helps support and
develop our various community programs and
services. We thank you for your support!
Date & Time
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Location
Hastings Racecourse
All our members, community partners, staff and
friends are cordially invited to attend this event.
Light refreshments will be served. Highlights of
the event include:
+ Launch of our new Website.
+ Keynote speaker, Merlyn Horton from Safe
Online Outreach Society (SOLOS) will do a
special presentation on digital communication
and social media.
+ Elections of Board of Directors.
+ Annual Staff Service awards & recognitions.
Price
$25/ticket (includes BBQ lunch)
In the telling of her story, Thuy describes her husband as controlling. Controlling of money, friendships, outings, education; he limited her from
broadening her circle and she felt secluded and
alone. “I held all my stress in my heart” she says
through our translator. “My husband treated me
very badly and I had nowhere to go”. According to
her he also encouraged their children to treat her
disrespectfully.
She is taking ESL classes now 4 days a week and
even though she finds it hard to concentrate at
times because of all of her worries, she finds
herself laughing there and making friends. Her
five-year goal is to “learn more English, find a job,
and ensure my children become good citizens”.
Contact
Jan Waldbillig or Freeza Anand
604.254.5457 or email us at
admin@westcoastfamily.org
Thuy’s Story
Thuy* sits across from me, head down and avoiding eye contact. She struggles to make “small
talk” with the few English words that she knows.
“Sunny”, she says, pointing outside. We smile at
each other. Her Resource Worker, Huong, joins us
and the translation begins. Thuy, who is 37, tells
me she has been in Canada for 5 years now and
that those years have been very difficult for her.
She tells me about the loneliness and isolation
she has experienced since leaving her country of
Vietnam to become a bride in Canada. When she
speaks of her two children, a son who is 9 and a
daughter who is 5, her smile returns briefly.
Thuy’s family came to the attention of the Ministry
for Children and Families. Thuy was frightened
and confused to get a visit at her home from an
MCFD Social Worker to investigate these claims.
This was a totally different experience for her. In
Vietnam, she says, “what you do at home is your
own business and nobody really cares”. Following
her initial fears, however, she was grateful that
someone did care and that someone was interested in her “business”. From there, the services
came, including a visit from a Vietnamese-speaking Resource Worker named Huong.
The “put-downs” were constant and “I felt like I
didn’t matter. I was sad almost all the time”. She
has left her husband in the past only to return
due to lack of support, financial help and, mostly,
confidence.
Today, Thuy and her two children are living in a
local shelter. When asked how she likes it there,
she responds with a big smile. “It is so good! My
children feel safe and they are happy all the time”.
Huong is assisting Thuy to find subsidized housing
so they can have a fresh start on their own. Thuy is
excited about the prospect of a brighter future and
hopes someday to be “independent and free”.
*Some names & identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals
Westcoast Family Centres 101–2780 East Broadway, Vancouver, BC V5M 1Y8
T. 604.254.5457 / F. 604.254.6169 / E. admin@westcoastfamily.org / www.westcoastfamily.org
Thuy beams when she talks about the help from
Westcoast staff. “I know someone cares about me
and my children and can help us”.
Being connected to the community through
discovering the Food Bank, using public transit,
applying for child tax benefits and managing a
restricted budget are a few of the details Huong
coaches Thuy on in their weekly meetings. Emotional support and encouragement are also major
elements of their relationship. “My thinking is
different now; I feel more positive. I am very grateful to Westcoast and Canada for helping me and
other women feel less isolated”. Thuy summarizes
our meeting by saying that she felt isolated in
the past five years. Her life and experiences are
broadening and her world is now a much bigger,
and better, place.