Family resource programs - Supporting communities

 [music]

[Burgeo, Newfoundland]

Narrator: Humans are social beings. Wherever people live the urge to come together is strong.

[music]

[Ramea, Newfoundland]

[Montreal, Quebec]

[Winnipeg, Manitoba]

[Vancouver, British Columbia]

Narrator: But for all their apparent differences the broader goals of communities are remarkably similar; nurturing children, social support, collective responsibility. By working to meet these goals family resource programs have been instrumental in the support of families and communities across Canada. Community begins with place. How can we belong here, where we live? So at the most basic level family resource programs support their communities by providing gathering places for families, a physical location where people can come together.

[background chatter and socializing]
[open house]

 [French language speaker with English translation] Sister Madeleine, Executive Director, La Maisonnette, Montréal, Québec : Our mission is to provide a place where everybody is welcome. La Maisonnette is a drop in centre where you get training, where people listen to you – it is a resource centre for families from all cultures and background, and our mission is to break the isolation. We are all here to give back to the parents their role as the primary educators for their children. Our mission is to create a harmonious environment full of confidence and peace so that the parents can recreate this environment at home. Our mission is also to recognize and develop the parents abilities and competencies, and improve parent-child relationships. 

Gary Dobbin, Executive Director, Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House, Vancouver, British Columbia : The Neighborhood House really tries to be kind of the center of a community or the heart of the community or a place where people can come to feel comfortable and a sense of belonging. So many times in our society and our Canadian culture we find that our connection to family maybe isn’t as great as it is in some other cultures and people start to feel a little bit isolated, disenfranchised. They don’t feel a sense of connection to anything but their own little family unit. And at the Neighborhood House we try to provide opportunities for people to get in connection with other people in their own neighborhoods and their own communities, doing things together and feeling a sense of belonging and some value to what they’re doing.

 [children singing]

Resource centre participant: Definitely valuable to the neighborhood and to the community itself because if you don’t got these places there’s nowhere to go. You got some good counselors here that you believe and that you can talk to. They’re just regular people and they can actually talk to a person one on one. And I think they’re doing a good job by having the store here, there’s daycare here for the children, crafts. There’s a little bit of a food bank here, that comes out, clothing and it helps the community for the community the way it is right now financially insecure right now as the neighborhood goes. But it’s a good spot and I like it. People here are okay.