The Town of Innisfail council approved the Family and Community Support Services' (FCSS) 2022 funding recommendations. (Innisfail Middle School)

By Alessia Proietti

YES Program receives resident appreciation

Innisfail approves 2022 funding for Family and Community Support Services

Dec 17, 2021 | 9:43 AM

Innisfail’s town council approved the Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) 2022 funding recommendations at their meeting this week.

FCSS offers programs aimed at community connection, support, learning and development. Grants are also made available by request from local organizations, businesses and individuals geared towards the same goals.

The FCSS Advisory Board discussed on Nov. 17 and Dec 6 their recommended allocation of the $134,000 grant funding for 2022. With eight community requests, the following recommendations have been approved, dispersing $112,687 of the grant amount to five community initiatives:

• Chinooks Edge School Division No. 73: $63,287
• Innisfail Public Library: $7,000
• Innisfail Senior Drop in Society: $20,000
• Standing Stones Counselling Grief Groups – Support for Youth Grade 5-8: $2,400
• YES (Youth Empowerment & Support) Program: $20,000

The remainder, $21,313, was placed in FCSS reserves for future 2022 allocation. Evaluated on an Eligibility Assessment Tool, FCSS will identify gaps, trends and community needs again sometime in May or June to distribute the contingency funding.

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Out of the five organizations receiving funding, only the Innisfail Senior Drop in Society received less than their initial request of $50,000.

Council acknowledged FCSS’ YES program by sharing a letter from resident Janice McBride, a kindergarten teacher who expressed how the school could not budget for the program that she believes is helpful to students.

“She just wants to say, ‘thank you from the bottom of our hearts for this purchase. It has truly impacted our little ones who need all the help we can give him’,” recited Mayor Jean Barclay.

Due to a previous restructuring in funding, officials say the YES program, newly introduced to the town in 2021, filled the gap for support services aimed at building children’s resiliency and coping skills like group work, mental health, and stress.

“Our ‘Kids Have Stress Too’ program, we were only doing in all Grade 1 classrooms and now with the addition of the YES program, we’ve now expanded to all Grade 3 classrooms and all Grade 8 classrooms. That was the goal; to get that to some of those other transitional grades when kids are certainly seeing increased levels of stress,” said Karen Bradbury, Manager of FCSS.

Innisfail & District Victim Services did not receive funding for their request of $25,000. They did, however, receive partial funding in 2021.

Two community organizations in Red Deer also made requests for the first time but did not receive funding. Shalom Counselling requested $15,000 and the Lending Cupboard requested $27,500.

FCSS is expecting the Town to receive $207,592 in funding by the Province of Alberta for 2022, divided between internal FCSS programs and to external local organizations.

Fund distribution by FCSS begins in January.