Beausoleil First Nation Family Services
Department Updates
Staff
Shelley Monague - Coordinator/Band Representative
Marsha Assance - Parental Support Worker
Hank Monague - Youth Support Worker
Junior Youth Workers - Carly-Rae Monague & Brendan King (Annual Eight Month Term Contracts)
Summer Day Camp Counsellors (Annual 8 - 10 Week Term Contracts)
And all of our Wonderful Volunteers!!! The People who come out to help and assist us with all of our community activities.
Here is a list of our programs, some are old and some are new. However they all conitnue to be delivered on an on-going basis. (The programs listed below require that a staff member be trained to deliver these programs ensuring that the programs can be offered on a regular basis and remain a permanent part of our programming).
Connect with Baby - Delivered in the home through the process of Home Visiting on a one on one basis with the care giver and their child(ren). Tuesdays and Thursdays at the care givers request. Sign up!
Connect with Toddler - Delivered in the home through the process of Home Visiting on a one on one basis with the care giver and their child(ren). Tuesdays and Thursdays at the care givers request. Sign up!
Ready to Learn Series - The first two programs are a part of this series, it continues on to Getting Ready for K, and Success in K, once the children get older, however parents can sign up for this part of the series at any time if their children are between the ages of 3-5 years.
Cooking Up a Story - Reading stories and cooking up healthy fun treates to share. This program focuses on math, social and problem solving skills. Ages 3-5 years and their parents.
Lullabies to Literacy - 10 session program, delivered in the home on a one on one basis, with each session delivered in succession to completion of the program.
Mother Goose - Offered annually in the spring and summer months for Parents/Caregivers and children, one day per week with a visiting elder. This program has been modified from its original format to include language, culture and history.
Krafty Kitchen - Learning how to prepare healthy meals on a limited budget for the whole family, every other Monday. You must call in to sign up due to the limited space. 5 Cooks per session.
Computer Rainbow Learning - This program helps the young learner with number, letter, color and word recognition. Can be used on a Drop-in basis.
Parenting Resource Library - We have a various number of parenting books, videos, language books, games and music CDs, all of which can be signed out for a period of time. Come in and check it out!
Bath Time Fun - This workshop is one of the Parenting Program spin offs, it encourages healthy interaction with moms and babies during daily bath time routines.
Your Baby and Books - This is also a Parenting Program spin off which encourages parents to introduce book, reading and language to their young children.
Book Making Workshop - Awareness to sounds, language, letter recognition and the development of fine motor skills. This mini workshop is geared to children ages 3 - 6 and their parents.
Reading your Baby's Temperament - This mini workshop was designed for understanding the baby's temperaments and behaviors. (another parenting program spin off).
Learn how Babies Play - A mini workshop geared to 0 - 1, learning how babies play with things around the home. No need for expensive toys - how do you use everyday items in your home to amuse and keep the interest when playing with your baby, (another parenting program spin off).
Safe House - In the lower level of our Office we have an apartment set up for use in an emergency situation re: Family Violence if needed for the safety of a family in need. It is also used for visitors to the community i.e.: facilitators, trainers etc., and it can also be used by other community organizations for meetings. We also use the Basement Facilities to run many of our Family Support Worker and Parenting programs
Band Rep./Child Welfare - This services is provided to the Beausoleil First Nation Membership who are involved in Child Welfare Issues involving the CAS. This may involve advocating for the band member, home visits, supervision orders, court appearances, case conferences, family circles, settlement conferences, status reviews, trials, and various amounts of liaison work between the community and the CAS involved. Most importantly representing the best interest of the child on behalf of the First Nation. We are also finding that I have had to work more closely with clients who are experiencing separation issues involving custody and access. Have included more Family Law information for community members and have also assisted with Affidavit writing.
Youth Centre Programming - The Youth Centre is open five nights a week Monday, Friday, (ages 6 – 18 years of age). Program will changed with the hiring of our new Youth Support Worker Hank Monague. The youth worker is responsible to have planned evening activities for all the above ages on a scheduled calendar. He is also responsible for both the Summer Students and the Junior Youth staff; together they will plan and host various annual events and youth workshops through out the year. Watch for postings and sigh-up sheets. Youth Volunteers are always welcome to participate at any time.
Annual Prince & Princess Pageant - This annual public speaking event has been set up to encourage the youth of our community to come out and express their hopes, dreams, and desires for themselves and our community. The youth who are chosen by the panel of judges become our youth representatives for the community for a one year term. They are required to participate in all community activities sponsored by any of our community organizations and most importantly represent the youth by being an active role model.
Youth Mentoring Program - Teaming youth together for the purpose of tutoring each other in various subjects that they may be having difficulty with. This program has also been developed to help the High School students get their 40 hrs community volunteer hours for their SSGC. This program is run out of the Youth Centre and is on a need basis when requested.
Summer Day Camp Program - We run a summer day camp every year. This year we are hosted a summer long day camp. We hire two senior students every year to be our camp counselors assisting our Youth Support Worker with the camp. We try to provide a wide range of programming for the youth ages 6 - 12 years during their time at camp.
March Break Camp - This camp Is run obviously during the March break of every year, we try to hold training programs for the youth at this time ie: Babysitting course, People Savers for ages 5 - 8 years etc. These mini workshops for the youth are geared to helping them develop some life skills techniques at an early age.
Triple "P" Parenting Program - We host two Triple "P" parenting programs yearly, one in the spring and one in the fall. Each participant, upon their completion of the program, receive a certificate. Each program that is set up, is run differently, to reflect the needs of the participants. We have Triple P for young children and Triple P for pre-teen and teens.
Parenting 1234 - This is another parenting program that we would like to initiate within our community, our Parental Support Worker has already taking the training to run this program. Once again each parenting program is individualized for the specific group of participants and what works best for their schedules, whether we have daily, weekly or evening sessions with the location to suit the needs.
TAASWIN Food Bank - This program is operated and housed here at the Family Services Office. We have cupboards set up in one of our rooms that are stocked with the support of the Social Services Program and our own fund raising efforts. Our biggest fundraiser for the TAASWIN Food Bank is the Prize Table on Solidarity Day with raised approximately $500.00 to $1000. 00 per yr with the support of the community. This program is needed and is widely used by the community, both young and old, those who are on social assistance, fixed monthly incomes and the working poor.
Counselling Programs - We do not handle counseling within our programs, however we cost share this program with the Health Services Department, and therefore refer any clients that come to our office for this service. (We will continue with this program for as long as we are funded under this Family Violence UOI Funding Agreement).
Client Emergency Services - This service is provided to community members in need of assistance for various reasons, it could be transportation costs for supervised visits with children in care, it could be for drug screens, possible for counseling visits off the island, and for attending other Family Court hearings (custody) etc. Need based.
Annual Community Activities - We host and participate in annual activities in our community which all community members young and old are welcome to participate in such as the Annual Community Christmas Party and Parade, the Annual Tree Lighting, the Children's Halloween party, the Community Easter Egg Hunt, Native Solidarity Day Activities, etc.
Community Workshops - Every year it is different, we try to host at the very least two training workshops per year. We would like to organize exchanges for the youth within our First Nations to begin with this year and then possibly look at other exchange programs. We would also like to host another Moss Bag Workshop for the community.
Youth/Summer Student Staff - Every year the Youth who are employed with the Child and Family Services have been budgeted into our program and have been approved by the Ministry that funds our program. We have been successful at employing two full time summer students for a period of between 8 - 10 weeks every summer and we successfully sustained two part time students year round at 15 hours per week, each holding eight month contracts.
As you can see by our list of programs and services we try to include the community as a whole to participate from our tiniest community member to our eldest community member. We have some programs and activities specific age group and others that incorporate all ages coming together.
Youth Centre Programming - Open four nights a week, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 6:30 p.m - 9:00 p.m. and from 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m on Fridays. Various planned craft and sport activities. Various annual events and youth workshops throughout the year. Watch for postings and sign-up sheets.
Child and Family Services Volunteer Group - Click to Enlarge
Future Plans
We are always looking for way to improve programming and for new and exciting workshops that we can bring into the community, and will continue to do so into the future.
