INNISFAIL – Town council has approved FCSS social programming funding for 2020 and local schools are the big winners.
Unfortunately for the town’s youth there is no programming money now but that could soon change.
At council’s regular meeting on Jan. 13, just $99,100 of provincial FCSS money was divided up. Local Chinook's Edge schools are getting half with $50,000, while another $15,600 is going to St. Marguerite Bourgeoys Catholic School. Henday Association for Lifelong Learning will receive $3,500. Another $25,000 will go to the Innisfail Seniors Drop-In Centre and $5,000 is being directed to the Innisfail Public Library.
The $99,100 of provincial FCSS money the town had to give out is far less than the up to $172,000 it has been able to hand out in the recent past, and youth programming was the victim of the recent lost funding.
Last year the town learned provincial funding of $43,191 that was earmarked for youth programming through Red Deer’s Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Boys and Girls Club was being cut. That forced the town to be more prudent with any extra funding and to search for other sources of revenue. With the new decreased budget the town has stored away $29,709 in FCSS funds for “further consideration of programs and services in 2020," a report presented to council.
Karen Bradbury, the town’s community and social development coordinator, said after her presentation to council that the town is reapplying for Alberta Children’s Services support under a new Family Resource Networks program and funding model. However, said Bradbury, the amount of funding available for Innisfail and the entire region is far less than what the town was getting under the old FCSS funding model, said Bradbury.
“I am hopeful we can recuperate some dollars. We just don’t know what that will look like,” she said. “Once we know what we are working with as of mid to late March, that, with the little bit of leftover FCSS funds ($29,709), then we will know what we can move forward on.”
Bradbury said the town is specifically seeking new provincial support for the recently created Innisfail Youth Positive Assets Coalition (YPAC), along with the establishment of a youth action council. YPAC is a recently created group of individuals, programs and organizations whose mandate is to identify and address issues for youth and young adults between the ages of 14 and 24.
Bradbury, the youth coalition’s chair, said if the town is successful with the grant application it will fund a new child/youth mentoring program, and expand the Kids Have Stress Too! program, which now serves Grade 1 students and focuses on identifying sources of stress and learning coping skills.
She said that while the coalition already has some private local Rotary Club funding for youth activities, any new grant monies are earmarked for staffing support.
“I think we are at the point in Innisfail that we need more feet on the ground when it comes to our youth engagement. If we can get additional funding we would love to be able to look at the option of whether we can put more staffing into our programs.”
In the meantime, there is already support for the new Family Resource Networks model coming from council.
“I am definitely hopeful. I am pretty positive about it. With the old funding model we just had maybe a little too much duplication of services or overlapping,” said Coun. Doug Bos. “The (past) money was going to Red Deer already and we didn’t know how many of those dollars actually came back and got spent in Innisfail, so I think there was some duplication of services there.
“The library always struggles for funding, so they can create more programs and this can help them a lot with their stuff going on there,” he added.
Currently, the youth programming now offered by the Innisfail library includes a Spanish for kids program on Tuesdays, a Lego club meeting twice a month on Wednesday, Crafternoon twice a month on Wednesday and Thursday, and an Oculus R virtual reality session twice this month. On Fridays when there is no school, the library also hosts a movie and other activities.
