St. Albert has once again been left off the list for a provincially-funded family resource centre due in part to its children’s performance on a standardized assessment test.
With the recent provincial budget flurry of funding announcements, an additional three Parent Link Centres were added to Alberta’s roster.
Parent Link Centres offer free parenting and play programs geared toward families with children aged six and under.
St. Albert Family Resource Centre has been advocating for the past few years to become a Parent Link Centre.
According to the board treasurer, there are now 53 parent link locations across Alberta.
“St. Albert is the largest municipality in the province that does not have a Parent Link Centre,” said Kristi Rouse, the treasurer of the board. “Essentially St. Albert Family Resource Centre offers the majority of the services that a parent link centre does, but without the benefit of provincial funding.”
They’ve been asking for a couple of years why St. Albert doesn’t have one yet, including a meeting with the human services minister in March 2014.
“The reason that we were given by the human services minister was that decisions to establish new Parent Link Centres was being based on what is called the early childhood mapping index,” Rouse said. “Basically the reason we are being given is that St. Albert students are doing pretty good.”
But there has been an increase in the number of children with developmental disabilities or other special needs thanks in part to St. Albert’s good resources, and early education or head start programs have “just exploded” with enrolment, she said.
While the resource centre has many of the same programs, the provincial funding would help put them on a level playing field.
“We just can’t compete when a Parent Link Centre, their wages are miles ahead of what our centre can pay for,” Rouse said.
Zoe Cooper, a spokesperson for the human services ministry, said there are three factors that are considered when selecting locations for parent link centres.
One of the factors is the early development instrument (EDI), which is the same as the childhood mapping index mentioned by Rouse.
The scores are determined by an assessment by kindergarten teachers who look at their students’ development in five areas: social competence, emotional maturity, language and thinking skills, physical health and well-being and communication skills.
Centres are established where 29 per cent or more of children are having great difficulty in one or more of those five areas.
“St. Albert’s EDI data is significantly lower than the provincial average, so 29 per cent is the provincial average and only 17.8 per cent of children in St. Albert have great difficulty in one or more areas of development,” Cooper said.
Other factors include other indicators of children’s development in those areas and the services that might already be available in a community.
“St. Albert is in a good position regarding EDI, and … the Family Resource Centre does have a number of contracts with Human Services,” Cooper said, noting some of those contracts are for services that would be available in a Parent Link Centre.
This all means St. Albert hasn’t been identified as one of the communities with the greatest need for a Parent Link Centre.
St. Albert’s politicians are also trying to find out why St. Albert hasn’t received a centre yet.
Mayor Nolan Crouse said he wants to know what the criteria are and whether the MLAs are advocating for one.
“I just think that if St. Albert is being treated differently than other cities, I want to know why,” Crouse said.
Coun. Tim Osborne said he’s attended some meetings with the Family Resource Centre as part of its advocacy for a parent link centre. He said that St. Albert is missing out on valuable funding and training opportunities that could be provided to the community.
The Family Resource Centre does a fantastic job and the services there would be enhanced by a Parent Link Centre designation, Osborne said.
“There may be a perception we don’t need some of these services in St. Albert, but frankly that’s not true,” he added.
