by Pierre Provost Community Organizer CLSC-CHSLD Baie des Chaleurs
In 1995 the school nurse and social worker, in conjunction with public and community organizations, concluded to the necessity of developing an intervention program for anglophone families of New Carlisle in the Gaspesie.
Problems and Characteristics
In the territory of CLSC - CHSLD Baie des Chaleurs, we found a population characterized by poverty, unemployment and psychosocial risks. Some English families in New Carlisle were among the poorest in the whole region
The following gives some of the socio-economic characteristics of the New Carlisle population: (in 1995)
These figures show the economic poverty in New Carlisle, especially among women. This situation particularly affects the unilingual English majority who have difficulty entering the job market in a region which is mostly francophone. Besides the poverty, Now Carlisle's English community had no structure able to provide support for low income families in difficulty. There wasn't any day-care, any child care resources or any group support. The children frequently were found in a social and family environment with little stimulation. Besides individual poverty, who found a collective poverty which bankrupts the community.
The organizations in the Health & Social Services network concluded that the New Carlisle English community was one of the most deprived in the whole territory. The effects on the development and health of the children arc numerous: slow development, language troubles, learning problems, problems adapting, psychological distress, etc. At New Carlisle High School about 31% of pupils need special education as soon as they begin school.
Therefore, we chose to target the community of New Carlisle by promoting community involvement with the help of professional resources. The group decided to unite their efforts to prevent child neglect problems.
However, several success factors are essential to assure the effectiveness of such an intervention:
the global environment of these youngsters and their families must be taken into consideration.
the recognition of the fundamental role of parents and re-enforcing their abilities
community participation and the use of its resources
use of different intervention strategies.
Also, the traditional intervention over negligent families doesn't always produce the desired results. Only 25% of abusive families significantly improve their behavior as parents. These interventions, sometimes only partial, don't affect the parents behavior as much as the influence of many sources in the community. The use of a systematic approach is the key because the physical and socio-economic environment in which a person lives determines his or her behavior. A new structure must replace the deficient one, the determining factors of health bein8 the target.
Implementation:
Different community and public partners such as CLSC, Volunteer Center, Youth Protection and the English School Board began to establish a structure of support for English families in New Carlisle. To start we received financial help from government programs to set up a daycare center
The objective of the daycare center is to offer a break to the parents, to develop their parental skills, to inform parents of services available to break the isolation, to offer a safe learning atmosphere to children 2 to 5 years old, to prepare children for school, to encourage families to use the Community resources and to decrease the risk of negligence towards children. This enabled the parents to volunteer a certain number of hours per week. As we canto to recognize their needs we were able to develop the following services:
Stimulation workshops for children 2-5 years old in an organized place and with the support of a competent animator.
In the fall of 1997, after 2 years in service, we officially founded Family Ties - Carrefour Famille New Carlisle and were recognized as a non-profit organization by the federal government. The following spring, the CLSC Chaleurs won the Andre-Tetreault prize given by the Federation des CLSC. This prize recognizes the excellence of the Munchkin Mansion project which is increasingly making an impact on the New Carlisle community,
Last summer, we bought the building in which Munchkin Mansion has operated for the Last 3 years. Our future plans are to build a kitchen for collective cooking, conduct more Youth Program activities on the premises and better organize the trading post.
Finally, the Conference of Regie Regionale chose the project Family Ties - Carrefour Famille New Carlisle to be presented at its annual Public Health meeting. The prevention of child neglect and mobilization of the community were the topics presented.