News last week that the Parent Link program is being axed by the provincial government as part of its austerity plans is an over-reaction, at least according to Bonnyville-Cold-Lake-St. Paul UCP MLA Dave Hanson. However, those involved with the program on the local front only know that Parent Link as it exists today, will end March 31, 2020
Lynn Smid, director of the Town of St. Paul FCSS, which is the fiscal agent for the St. Paul Parent Link Centre, says people are justifiably concerned with word from the Family and Social Supports Ministry that it is ending funding to Parent Link centres in the province which presently provide programming and services to support families with children in the zero to six years of age category.
Smid said historically the funding has always been year to year and a new agreement is signed each year. However, this year the government is not offering that. Instead, partners have been invited to submit an expression of interest in delivery programming for families with children from zero through to 18 years of age.
Hanson said in an interview with the Journal Friday that his government is rethinking delivery of services on a number of fronts.
"I’ve got an email from the department – it says very clearly that Parent Link centers have not been cut nor have family resource centres or home visitation services. Instead, we are launching a new expression of interest process to consolidate and realign the way prevention and early intervention services are delivered across the province," Hanson said.
"So that says to me they haven’t arbitrarily cut those programs. It’s just a matter of amalgamating, make sure we don’t have an cross-over or redundancy in the system and getting groups to work together in their own communities to make sure they are delivering the programs without too much crossover."
Parent Link has been a gathering place for families and their children from 15 years in St. Paul, according to Smid and while she said they will definitely be submitting an expression of interest in the new funding stream and program framework, there are still many unknowns at the local level.
Parent Link provides parenting and child focused programming free of charge specific to early childhood development and screening.
"They basically focus on the five areas of early childhood development: physical health and wellbeing, communication skills and general knowledge, emotional maturity, social competence and language, and thinking skills," Smid said.
"We might be doing a Baby Bunch with new moms and their babies and offering them support and advice when asked. It might a Read and Roll program where we are bolstering their language and their learning skills. It could be a story and craft that had to do with communication. So everything was very much patterned around how do we support parents, guardians and children with this early development and trying to help with the assessment of these kids before they reach school age so if there were any developmental delays we could refer them to specialists as well."
The program employs two full-time staff. What their future is with the change in government direction, is also an unknown, according to Smid.
"We don’t know yet. It all depends if our expression of interest is successful and if we are offered funding to continue but broaden our scope of work . . . There are still a lot of questions around what that might look like and the partnerships that would form out of that."
Smid said both town and County of St. Paul families access the Parent Link Centre and said there's definitely some concern among staff and residents in the community reacting to the news.
"For a lot of these families, obviously when you’ve been used to being able to access a program and service, it’s alarming when all of a sudden something that you have is no longer there, may not be there in the future. It’s a jolt for everybody.
St. Paul Parent Link is part of the Lakeland Parent Link Network, which also includes programs in Bonnyville, Cold Lake and Lac La Biche.
