Family Preservation

Providing families from member nations who live on reserve, access to resources to ensure the safety and holistic wellness of their children are met.

About the Program

The goal of the program is to keep children and families together and increase the family’s ability to safely care and nurture their children. Our program is co-funded by the Ministry of Child and Family Development and the First Nations Health Authority.

Who We Serve

Located in Burns Lake, Fort St. James and Vanderhoof, the program works with families who are involved, or at risk of involvement with the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD), or who are seeking support and information on parenting, life skills and self-help support. Family members do not have to have an open Family Support file to participate in any of our Family Support groups. Any Burns Lake, Houston and Smithers area families who wish to partake in our life skills programming are welcome.

Services We Offer

We offer a variety of programs and resources on parenting, teen parenting, single parenting and mental health resources to help with everyday stresses. Each Parenting group lasts 5-8 weeks depending on the topics at hand.

Parent education programs
Parent support groups
Parent to parent connections
Assisting families to plan activities that will encourage the optimum development for their children

LIFE SKILLS/ADULT SUPPORT GROUPS

When Love Hurts

A support group for women who have experienced abuse from their male partners. This group offers tools and information to bring awareness to their situation, draw strength from other women's lived experiences and to let women know that they are not alone. By sharing other women’s stories, women can begin to hear their own story more clearly, learn healthy relationship skills and increase safety for themselves and their children.

P.E.A.C.E Program

Prevention, Education, Advocacy, Counselling & Empowerment (P.E.A.C.E) is designed to build on children’s positive feelings of self-worth and self-esteem, and to mitigate the impacts of violence in the home. The program is presented in groups or privately for 11 weeks. P.E.A.C.E. also works with caregivers to promote a healthy & nurturing relationship. This program encourages the parent and child bond, and mitigates the impacts of inter-generational trauma as a result of colonization.

GRIEF & LOSS PROGRAMS

Rainbows, Sunbeam or Spectrum

These groups assists children of various ages to understand that they did not cause divorce or a death. It helps them discover their own inner strengths, learn to accept and manage their circumstances, and progress from hurt through healing to hope.

PRISM

PRISM is a peer support group program for single-parents, step-parents, and parents whose children are in the Rainbows program. The purpose of PRISM is for parents to understand and process their grief, become more attuned to their children’s grief and be able to recreate “family” again. PRISM meets consecutively for 12 weeks; each session runs for 1 hour. At the end of the 12 weeks, all participants take part in a closing session.

Kaleidoscope

A peer support program for adults who may have recently experienced and are processing grief or are dealing with unresolved issues of grief and loss. This program is designed to have the participants take an honest look at themselves in relation to their family’s loss. Kaleidoscope meets consecutively for 12 weeks; each session being 1 hour. At the end of the 12 weeks all participants take part in a closing session.

For Inquiries or registration about any of the programs we offer. Contact: Adele Gooding, 250-251-0163 or email agooding@csfs.org

REFERRAL PROCESS

We can provide referrals to other CSFS programs or other services around the community. Services are voluntary and free of charge to clients who fit within our mandate of service provision. We receive referrals from clients themselves, and also from social workers, medical professionals, legal professionals, child care providers, teachers, principals, counsellors and women’s shelters, or any other source. We also provide a wide variety of hands-on training from a culturally relevant perspective in the areas of personal identity, child and parent attachment, relapse prevention and more.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Vanderhoof office

240 West Stewart St

Vanderhoof, BC.

V0J 3A0

Telephone: 250-567-2900
Toll Free: 1-866-567-2333

Burns Lake office

492 Highway 16

(The big white building across the Burns Lake Native Development Centre and Subway)

Burns Lake, BC.

VOJ 1E0

Telephone: 250-692-3997.