The Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) program is a municipal-provincial partnership through which people can develop services and perform activities that strengthen their families and communities. FCSS is one way that locals can increase their sense of belonging in their community. By assuming responsibility and working together, citizens create a better social and emotional climate in their community for themselves and others.

FCSS-designated programs are to be preventative and are designed to:

• enhance, strengthen, and stabilize family and community life.
• improve individuals’ ability to identify and act on their social needs.
• prevent family and community breakdowns.
• provide additional programs on the basis of clear need and effective planning.
• encourage cooperation and coordination with allied service agencies already operating within the community.

The following is a list of currently funded FCSS programs and the time frame in which these programs happen.

Books for Babies

Books for Babies is a preventative community-based volunteer family literacy program that promotes reading as a family activity. Through the program books and information is delivered to new parents, stressing the importance of reading to very young children, in an effort to provide every child the opportunity to become a self-directed and successful life-long learner.

• Kathy Richards
  kathy.richards@westwind.ab.ca
  403-653-4991

CHS After-School Counselling Group

This program is designed to create opportunities for students to achieve academic, social and physical skills to allow them to cope and thrive in diverse settings and conditions in an effort to achieve their academic and career goals.

• Garry Fox
  garry.fox@westwind.ab.ca
  403-653-4951

Caregiver Support Group

This program provides support, education, and resources for caregivers in our community. This helps to ensure the health and well being of the caregiver as well as those they are caring for and their whole family structure. With healthier caregivers we enhance, strengthen and stabilize family and community life by preventing burnout for the caregivers and making sure they have access to any and all resources they may need. Supporting the caregiver will improve their ability to identify and act on their own needs as well as prevent abuse and breakdown.

• Kathy Jensen
  kj1919@gmail.com
  403-653-2073

Community Awareness Evening

Community Awareness is a community information event in the form of a bazaar. Various service agencies are invited to have a booth to share their information. Through this event community members will learn about the resources available to them, making them feel more connected, engaged and supported by their community.

• Kathy Richards
  kathy.richards@westwind.ab.ca
  403-653-4991

Community Directory

The Community Directory provides community citizens with contact information for emergency services, civic and volunteer organizations, schools and medical info, churches and much more. These directories are available free for all community members at the Cardston Civic Centre.

• Alexis Buzzee
  alexis@cardston.ca
  403-653-5045

Community Keep Fit

This program offers individuals the opportunity to experience the benefits of exercise while avoiding social isolation and remaining involved in the community. Therapeutic recreation moves individuals from simply being “in” the community to being “part” of the community, which further addresses the rehabilitation process. Community Keep Fit  is designed for adults who are physically, emotionally or socially challenged and are unable to participate in a regular exercise or fitness program. It also provides an affordable, accessible and safe environment for individuals to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

• Shellee Walburger
  shellee.walburger@albertahealthservices.ca
  403-653-5253

Family Violence Prevention Initiative

The Family Violence Prevention program is dedicated to fostering a community that accepts a zero tolerance of violence within the family and to provide educational opportunities and resources that will assist individuals and families achieve this.

• Kathy Richards
  kathy.richards@westwind.ab.ca
  403-653-4991

Family School Liaison Program                                                                                                                                                                               The role of Family

The Family School Liaison Counsellor is a preventative, proactive program that focuses on providing individual and family support through direct counselling, presentations and family support through collaboration with other agencies. It promotes healthy lifestyles with an objective of enabling the children to maximize their potential in school and throughout their lives. As of 2013 the Why Try? program will be merged with the Family School Liaison Counsellor program. The goal of the Why Try? program is to help youth answer the question “Why Try in Life?” Teaching children that “yes”, it is worth trying hard in life, presenting solutions to problems that youth are often faced with in ways that they can both understand remember.

• Dr. Blain Hogg
  blaine.hogg@westwind.ab.ca
  403-653-4991

First Nations Liaison Officer

An initiative to help connect vagrant in the community to counselling and other services that will help them make the shift to having healthier, productive, and more meaningful lives.

• Marian Carlson
  marian@cardston.ca
  403-653-3366

Halloween Carnival

This program is run each Halloween to provide the communities young children with an a warmer alternative to trick or treating. The program is set up with a carnival atmosphere and could not be run without the help of volunteers from the community.

• Alexis Buzzee
  alexis@cardston.ca
  403-653-5045

Home Alone Safely          

Children are sometimes afraid to be “Home Alone” and parents are sometimes afraid to leave their children “home alone.”  With the significantly increased number of two-income earning families and single parent families and with some children preferring to be at home rather than in “out of school programs,” the need for ten to twelve year old children to be “home alone” becomes a necessity.  (It is up to the parent’s discretion whether their ten to twelve year old children are mature enough to be home alone. The Cardston and District FCSS funds a “Home Alone Safely” program twice a year that is open to grades 5 and 6. Through discussion and activities the program teaches them how to stay safe, learn rules, eat well and be comfortable and happy when they are home alone. It is an afternoon course that is run twice a year, the maximum number of students that can be registered for each class is 8.

• Alexis Buzzee
  alexis@cardston.ca
  403-653-5045
• Kathy Schow
  kathy.schow@westwind.ab.ca

Interagency Initiative 

The Inter-Agency Initiative is a monthly meeting where different agencies form the community collaborate and share information. This initiative aims at preventing the formation of silos and the repeat of community programming and services through open communication and collaboration.

• Chris Sunderland
  ccsunderland@gmail.com

Love & Logic Parent

This program helps parents learn and strengthen their coping skills using strategies, role playing and other methods to ensure positive outcomes in the home with children of all ages.

• Kathy Richards
  kathy.richards@westwind.ab.ca
  403-653-4991

Meals on Wheels

Seniors and people with limited mobility have a hard time living independently in their own homes. They are faced with limited social interaction and often don’t have people that can check in on them on a regular basis. The Meals on Wheels program is a lunch delivery service where volunteers focus on social interaction with their clients and ensure that they are physically and emotionally well on a regular basis.

• Sheila Pierson
  haldons@msn.com
  403-653-3453

UltraKids

This program is designed to build self-esteem in participants as they interact and are given an opportunity for social inclusion. They set individual goals, group goals, and learn about healthy lifestyles while building healthy habits that will last a lifetime.

• Sonja Richards
  sonja.richards@westwin.ab.ca
  403-653-7077

Volunteer Appreciation

The Volunteer Appreciation Event is hosted annually by the Cardston and District FCSS organization to honour the hard work and dedication of our local volunteers. The event is Christmas themed as it is held each year in December. The event includes a meal, entertainment, and small gifts and prizes.

• Alexis Buzzee
  alexis@cardston.ca
  403-653-5045

What Every Babysitter Should Know

The St. John’s “What Every Babysitter Should Know” course is held twice a year (Spring and Fall) and is open to 12 youths ages 11 to 18. This course is designed to teach babysitting skills to young members of the community, this not only provides a possible source of income to these youths while giving them a sense of responsibility, it also creates a trustworthy pool of babysitters for families in the community to choose from. As it becomes more and more likely that both parents in a household will be working  full time jobs the reality of needing a trustworthy babysitter increases. This course helps fill these need, preventing the social issues that can come from youth who are faced with limited roles in the community and families that can’t find the extra help they need.

• Alexis Buzzee
  alexis@cardston.ca
  403-653-5045

Women’s Conference

The goal of this conference is to provide all women, regardless of age, ethnicity, or socio-economic background, an opportunity to meet together once a year to relax, socialize, and learn.  This affordable conference creates a  relaxing and fun environment for the women of our community to take an evening off to focus on their personal well being.

• Kathy Richards
  kathy.richards@westwind.ab.ca
  403-653-4991

WRA EAGALA Program

This program helps to create a strong sense of self-worth and self-esteem through equine therapy. The program focuses on leadership, cooperation, tolerance, and communication skills in children and adolescents.

• Shellee Shaw
  shellee@shaw.ca
  403-892-9027

 

For more information on any of these programs, please contact:

Alexis Buzzee
FCSS Coordinator
Phone: 403-653-5045
Fax: 403-653-2499
Email: alexis@cardston.ca