Crunching the numbers to support growing families

Sharon McLeay
Times Contributor

 

Raising a family is not easy. Margo Sevcik, president of Growing Families Society for East Rural Counties, appeared before Strathmore town council Dec. 7 to highlight the needs of the service to support the area’s growing families.
The Growing Families Society supports families in Strathmore and East Rural Communities. Its mission is to promote, support and advocate healthy lifestyles within rural communities by enhancing the unity of the family structure through various client-directed programs and community development.
“We work to promote, support and advocate healthy lifestyles, and to help all families reach their potential,” said Sevcik.
She said the group had previously lost funding with the split in the Family and Community Support Services (FCSS).
To make up for that, the Town of Strathmore provided $15,000 towards the Growing Families program last year. There was $5,000 utilized for the Growing Opportunities life skills program, which supports at-risk pregnancies; $5,000 for Bridging the Gap that works with seniors, lunch club, meet and greet mentorship and volunteer programs; and $5,000 for the 5 for Life program that supports activities for children aged one to five.
Sevcik said this year they are again seeing a shortfall and need an increase in their budget. She wanted direction from council and FCSS on budgeting forecasts for their program going forward.
Town staff said they had Sevcik present to council, not because there was no support for the program, but rather to showcase their needs and make people aware of their good service.
“There is no question in my book of business on the value you present to families, of sustained service over a countless number of years,” said Coun. Denise Peterson. “It’s been extraordinary.”
She commented that their work actually saves other programs money by making people healthy and happy. She said support for ongoing budget needs was something that was necessary.
Sevcik said that this year an additional $6,400 over and above last year’s allotment of $15,000, for a total of $21,400, would go a long way to keeping the program viable for the next year.
“As a board, we have had discussions about how we need to change our programs, to make the programs more effective,” said Sevcik.
However, she said that it comes down to money for some initiatives and changes they need to implement.
“We heard you loud and clear that good programming is dependent on certainty and losing staff because you don’t have certainty is not acceptable,” said Coun. Peterson.
Council directed the town CAO to coordinate with FCSS, so the group could access funding through the new process the town set up for funding through FCSS services.
All council members were in support of the group’s programs and efforts for residents and they directed Sevcik to follow up with them, if efforts to secure funding were successful.