Over the past year, Westcoast Family Centres has demonstrated remarkable adaptability and resilience, akin to many of our peers in the sector. We’ve navigated numerous transitions and are immensely proud of our staff, client families, and community for collectively surmounting obstacles. Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to our dedicated front-line and administrative staff, leadership, board members, community allies, benefactors, and donors who have consistently exceeded expectations to fortify the families we serve. Despite the challenges, we are confident that we are the right team for this mission.
Representing everyone at WFC, we consider it an honor to engage in the vital endeavor of fortifying families and communities. In 2022, we embraced our pledge to Reconciliation and embarked on a journey of decolonization. We’ve appointed leaders for this initiative, who have spearheaded staff training, the creation of a cultural safety assessment tool, and the establishment of our Indigenous Learning and Sharing Circle. Our dedication to this cause stems from our deep connection to the numerous Indigenous families we support, who are invaluable to us and the wider community. Our amalgamation with the Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre, our neighbors, remains robust. Looking forward, we aim to leverage this amalgamation to deliver even more value to the community.
This year, we’ve achieved most of our program and service objectives. Where we’ve fallen short, we’ve taken proactive measures to understand the reasons and identify adjustments to better meet family needs. We remain cognizant of the housing and drug crises’ effects, with our front-line team striving to assist families through these challenging circumstances. Furthermore, we prioritize our families by addressing the persistent financial challenges they face. Through our Building Blocks fund, we’ve supported numerous families with gift cards, Holiday Hampers, and other essential aid. While our financial assistance may be modest, it represents a beacon of hope and solidarity as living costs escalate. Every contribution counts.
Since setting our strategic goals for 2021-23, we’ve made significant strides in fulfilling our commitments in the following domains:
- Leadership and Partnerships: Our WFC leadership has expanded, and we’ve invested in nurturing future leaders by fostering a robust workplace culture and providing readily available staff resources. Moreover, we’ve fortified our partnerships within the sector to
collectively offer the most efficient and effective services. - Diversity and Inclusivity: As an employer and service provider, we’re dedicated to continuous diversity, equity, and inclusivity training, and we’re moving towards an organization-wide decolonization effort.
- Financial Sustainability: We remain vigilant custodians of our finances, ensuring long-term fiscal health and robust organizational financial systems.
- Strategic Growth: Acknowledging the ongoing uncertainty affecting many, we’ve adapted to the evolving needs of our communities. Our flexibility has enabled us to expand our programs, supporting as many individuals as possible.
- Quality and Care: As a COA-accredited agency, we persist in our pursuit of the highest standard of care by emphasizing staff training and education, routinely assessing our programs, and upholding respect and kindness as fundamental values of our service.
As we approach our 40th anniversary of community service next year, we eagerly anticipate the future developments for all of us at WFC. Please see the below PDF to view our full 2023-2024 Report to Community.
With warm regards,
Ann Kutcher + Shannon Svingen-Jones
Ann Kutcher, CEO
Shannon Svingen-Jones, Board President
Have a blast this summer with over 30 family-friendly activities for you and your kids. From homemade crafts to simple challenges, the fun begins in your very own neighbourhood.
This passport is for you and your family to participate in fun indoor and outdoor activities! We recommend 1 activity per day of the week in any order. Track your progress and when you have completed the activity, mark it in the blue stamp found on each activity page.
Connect with your friends and neighbours to encourage them to participate. Share your photos and progress on social media!
This week’s Teachings Tuesday is generously offered by Culturally Committed Community Member, Aaron Rivard (Cree-Metis). Thank you, Aaron – for your beautiful, open heart and your commitment to this work.
During one of our recent Learning/Talking Circles at work, I was reminded of how long I have been working on the front lines, supporting children, youths, and their families to feel a sense of connection. I began my career as a volunteer youth mentor for a local non-profit while attending school. I vividly recall the first youth I supported—an Indigenous teenager from a prairie province, sent to the lower mainland to live with family for various reasons. His love for hockey and the desire to feel connected stood out. I remember his Sunday morning calls, ensuring I would pick him up.
At that time, I had a friend living in a co-op who shared the same passion for hockey. Despite my own love for the sport during my childhood and teen years, I eventually found it less enjoyable as I became too skinny. However, during our time together, we spent many Sunday afternoons playing street hockey with my friend, his son, and numerous neighborhood children and youth from the co-op. Witnessing the significant impact it had on the Indigenous youth’s life was incredible. I felt grateful and honored to see the happiness radiating from him when playing hockey with others.
I share this story because it was the first time I witnessed firsthand the fundamental need to feel connected. The youth I mentored taught me about our universal need for connection and highlighted the growing disconnection in our society. I reflect on my father, his sister, and brother, contemplating the potential feelings of disconnection they experienced when taken from their families and placed in residential schools and foster care. Throughout my work, I’ve witnessed the challenges of reconnecting with what we love and those we love.
Recently, I had dinner with one of my dad’s younger sisters, who shared why she didn’t recognize her Cree Metis heritage for most of her life. Growing up in a community marked by racism towards Indigenous people made it hard for her to feel connected. Only recently has she embraced her heritage, expressing a desire to learn more about her roots. I was grateful when she helped cook Indigenous Tacos at my office, celebrating National Indigenous People’s Day in 2022. Seeing her connect with her culture and share it with coworkers was a profound experience. At seventy-eight, it was also her first time participating in a Smudge ceremony.
In my thirty-plus years of working on the front lines, supporting Indigenous children, youths, and their families, I’m reminded daily of the importance of helping them feel a sense of connection and belonging. The stories are numerous, and the ones above are just a couple I wanted to share.
My Cree grandmother, Elizabeth, taught my brother and me valuable lessons about helping others, fostering a sense of connection. She practiced the concept of paying it forward long before it gained media attention. Her generosity extended to giving someone the shirt off her back and sharing her last meal if she sensed a need.
Relationships revolve around feeling connected to those in our lives—family, friends, culture, creator, Earth, spirituality—anything that brings a sense of belonging. When connected to our culture, family, friends, community, spirituality, and Mother Earth, we create a sense of belonging within ourselves. Any form of spirituality can evoke a feeling of connection within us.
Connection brings peace to our souls.
Ay Hay/Thank you,
Aaron
After two years of thoughtful collaboration and deliberation, Westcoast Family Centres Society (WFC) and Westcoast Childcare Resource Centre (WCCRC) have forged a valued alliance and kinship and have recognized the profound impact of uniting both organizations. The organizations have worked closely in partnership for several years and both organizations operate under similar missions, visions, values, and intentions.
As of October 1, the two organizations will amalgamate under the societal name Westcoast Family Centres Society (Westcoast).
“During the time our organizations have worked together, we have developed strong relationships among our Boards and staff,” says Ann Kutcher, CEO of WFC. “This opportunity to combine our skills and resources will further enhance our ability to make a positive impact on families.”
For more than 35 years, WCCRC has provided information, referrals, training and resources to families, individuals and organizations who are seeking the best child care and early learning. They offer dozens of accessible workshops and professional development opportunities for Certified Early Childhood Educators and its Library is known as the most comprehensive and publicly accessible collection of early childhood education materials in the area.
For nearly 40 years, WFC has evolved to become a multi-service hub, delivering child-centred, evidencebased, and family-focused programs and services including family preservation and reunification, parent education, clinical counselling, and several others in Vancouver, North Shore, Tri-Cities, and Ridge Meadows. Additionally, the organization runs groups like Healthy Babies, Mother Goose, and other Early Years programming as well as community workshops like Successful Co-Parenting and Parent Quest.
Westcoast’s mission will be to strengthen relationships between children and families and between families and their communities. Together, the two organizations will leverage each other’s strengths and continue to help all families reach their full potential.
“Like-minded in several ways, WCCRC and WFC stand united to offer a seamless continuum of services of care for children, families, and educators in our community,” says Crystal Janes, Interim Executive Director of WCCRC. “Together, we will find our greatest impact as we create a prototype for positive change for our community.”
Westcoast’s Child Care Resource Centre will continue to operate its website, social media, and email blasts and service to the community will not change. However, staff emails and phone numbers will change, which will be reflected on their website.
