MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - Mountain View County council has approved 2025 Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) funding to 18 community groups and organizations totalling $132,851.
The approvals came by way of motion at the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
“The county is committed to supporting our communities through FCSS program delivery,” reeve Angela Aalbers told the Albertan. “We recognize and appreciate the vital role that our dedicated community groups play in delivering FCSS programming on our behalf and council is privileged to be able to allocate funds to support these groups.”
FCSS is a funding partnership between the Government of Alberta (80 per cent) and the county (20 per cent). Its aim is to design and deliver social programs that are preventative in nature, to promote and enhanced well-being among individuals families and communities.
Groups receiving funding this year include the following:
• Chinook’s Edge School Division (CESD) will receive $50,000 to support the Family School Wellness Program.
• CESD will also receive $18,050 to support Youth Empowerment and Support (YES) program.
• Mountain View Emergency Shelter Society will receive $6,525 to support outreach programs and services.
• BGC of Olds and Area will receive $6,000 to support the youth centre.
• The Town of Didsbury will receive $5,200 for the Didsbury Out of School Care program, which serves town and county residents.
• Mountain View Hospice Society will receive $5,000 for advertising and volunteer development.
• The Westbrook Preschool Association will receive $2,000 to support social and emotional regulation development skills.
• Other organizations receiving funding include Burden Bearers Counselling, local libraries, Greenwood Neighbourhood Place, Hope 4 MVC Kids, Olds Men Shed, Olds and Area Pregnancy Care Centre, and the Olds & District Special Family Voices Council.
Chief administrative officer Jeff Holmes told council, “The programs developed are intended to help individuals within their communities to adopt healthy lifestyles, thereby improving the quality of life and building and capacity to prevent and/or deal with crisis situations should they arise.”
Reeve Aalbers noted that the funding approved last week is in addition to the $245,332 that Mountain View County contributes to Carstairs, Olds, Didsbury, Sundre and Cremona through our FCSS agreements.
“Administration works hard to review all applications first, addressing compliance with the FCSS requirements for funding,” said Aalbers.
“Council then makes the decision on how to best allocate the funds, with the main goal of distributing the dollars in ways that maximize community impact across the entire county.”
