Family Programs
We strive to offer a safe and inclusive space for all genders, cultures, religions, ethnicities where youth are empowered to explore self and advocate for supports that respect the intersection of their identity and lived experiences. Our homes share in culture side-by-side with our youth and families, attending local events, smudging in the home, learning about traditional practices, offering opportunities for connections to nature and more.
The framework for all of our programs is inspired by the work of Larry Brendtro, Martin Brokenleg, and Steve Van Bockern on the Circle of Courage. Outlined in their book Reclaiming Youth at Risk: Our Hope for the Future (2009), they identify four universal development needs for children: belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity. With these as our guide, we begin all of our programs with connection and relationship building to create trust for our youth to feel that they are important and that they belong. Within the relationship we begin the work of teaching and learning new skills together, and then provide space and opportunity for our youth and families to use these skills independently.
Upon graduation from the program we encourage our youth and families to stay connected to their support groups and volunteer opportunities to share their stories and encourage others who are struggling.
Teaching Home.
The Teaching Home Program is designed to support a parent and young child together to provide safety when social workers have identified concerns about the parent's ongoing ability to provide stability and care for their child.
In the home we wrap support around both parent and child to provide the time needed for a young or inexperienced parent to grow into their role with skill and confidence. In this way, our supportive staff can model and teach caregiving practices while maintaining the parent-child connection. The teaching home is ideally suited to a young mom (in or out of care herself) and infant but could be easily adapted to a dad/infant or to an older parent with a young child.
If you are a social worker and would like to refer a family to the program please click here.
Residential Program.
We provide full time supported residential living for kids from hard places in our Hazelwood House and Birch House homes.
These children often present with significant behavioral issues due to experiencing complex trauma, mild to severe medical or mental health concerns including eating disorder behaviour, delayed development, or physical mobility challenges.
Our program is structured to meet the needs of children with FASD, ASD, ADHD, complex trauma and other neurodivergent diagnoses. We work with hospitals and families to aid in recovery when a bridge between a hospital stay and return home is the best plan. We connect and collaborate with the family of origin to help them learn new skills specific to their children's needs, in order to maintain the stabilization achieved in residence when transitioning home. With social worker approval we wrap our services around children and their family, supporting connection through community visits, home visits and weekly family dinners held in residence.
If you are a social worker and would like to refer a family to the program please click here.
Outreach Parenting.
The Outreach Parenting Support Program is designed to maintain family togetherness while addressing concerns or challenges within the family structure or dynamic.
Typically referrals are made by social workers involved with the family, but families can self refer to the program.
Each family is connected with an outreach worker who can guide in-home learning, supporting parents as they build skills with repetition and hands-on practice in their daily lives. Our team meets families where they are at, with the ability to schedule sessions outside of typical service hours. We collaborate on goals, build community resources, and support everything from morning routines, to bedtime routines through a program tailored to each family's unique needs and abilities.
If you are a social worker and would like to refer a family to the program or if you are self-referring for private pay, please click here.
Supported Visitations.
Our outreach team also supports parent access and visitation when children are in the care of the MCFD or DAA. We aim to remove the barriers families face by supporting visits in the family home and community, or hosting visitation in our Chilliwack and Mission visit space.
With social worker approval, transportation to and from the visits for children and parents can be included. We collaborate with the team to set goals, provide twice monthly written updates and attend team meetings as needed.
Our visits are fully supported to provide development and real world application of new skills that will enable them to bring their children home. Program goals are designed to mitigate the protection concerns and develop the necessary tools, community supports, confidence and competence to parent successfully. Our program has aided transition and reunification plans when parents have met the goals to see their children return home from care.
If you are a social worker and would like to refer a family to the program please click here.
Families we can support from our programming
Families currently navigating the child welfare system whether through MCFD or Delegated Aboriginal Agency, due to concerns around neglect, abuse, domestic violence, drug / alcohol addiction, mental health concerns and /or lack of skill and support.
Families who are working hard to mitigate the concerns identified by their social work team in order for a reunification to happen.
We welcome all family structures and work to tailor our program to suit single parents, coparenting from separate houses, dual parent families, grandparent families, or teen parents in or out of care. This can include:
Young mothers currently in care.
Single parents.
Two parent families.
Parents on a path to return who need continued support.