By Adam Ophus

"light at the end of the tunnel"

Parent Link ending to make way for new program

Nov 21, 2019 | 11:05 AM

On November 4, the McMan Youth, Family and Community Services Association received official notification that the funding for their Evergreen, Red Deer County and Mamawi Parent Link Centres from Alberta’s Ministry of Children’s Services will end March 31, 2020.

As such, current Parent Link programming in Innisfail, Rocky Mountain House, Drayton Valley, Consort, Stettler and their Outreach Parent Link activities will end.

Parent Link provides families in those areas with hands-on parent modeling of good parent behavior through high-quality, accessible programming and parents can go in with their children under the age of 5 to drop in and play five days a week.

In Rocky alone, Parent Link serves 368 children in the 0 to 5 age group and 302 parent or guardian caregivers, some of those even using the service multiple times a week.

“We’ve actually been in Rocky for 15 years as a Parent Link Centre, so the news came as quite a surprise,” said Bruce Rafuse, Director of Operations for McMan Youth, Family and Community Services Association.

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The funding cut comes as part of the provincial budget announced late last month.

“They (Ministry of Children’s Services) came out with a new framework for early intervention and prevention services back in the spring,” explained Rafuse.

He went on to say that he believes that they’re not getting rid of what was there, but instead are ensuring that more children across Alberta will see the benefits.

“In my eyes it’s more of an expansion, than a cutback,” he suggests.

What the government came out with after the announcement which affects more than just Parent Link, they was an “Expression of interest” for a new service called a Family Resource Network.

Parent Link currently only assists with children ages 0 to 5. The new Family Resource Network program intends to help children from the age of 0 to 18.

Rafuse says there will be some layoffs, unfortunately, but is hopeful the new program will be successful and that those employees can be hired back.

“Although the service won’t be called Parent Link, there will still be a service.”