The Town of Bonnyville wants to be at the table with the province when it comes to the Family Resource Network (FRN).
The town will be submitting an expression of interest to be a hub for their region, which includes the Town of St. Paul and Village of Glendon. In the FRN model, the hub is responsible for arranging the delivery of supports, programs, and services for local youth.
David Beale, director of the Bonnyville and District FCSS, explained the process was open to organizations and agencies that believe they have the capacity to fill the hub role.
“It’s a hub and spoke model. Each individual service will provide a spoke service, each individual unit, whether they’re doing a parent talk group, or parent education group, or a home visitation group, whatever product or service they’re providing. Each of these will have a separate contract with the ministry, and the funds will flow from the ministry directly to the spoke agencies,” he detailed to council during their Nov. 26 meeting.
He continued, “The hub would be responsible to ensure that the spokes were living up to their agreements, that there was the services that were required were being delivered, they would be identifying gaps saying, ‘oh, we’re not seeing this kind of service being provided in a particular place, we need to get that work done.’”
In November, the provincial government announced that funding contracts with Parent Link Centres expire on March 31, 2020. The FRN was developed in order to fill the gap.
The province created the FRN as a means of administering services to children between the ages of zero to 18 across Alberta, and will launch April 1, 2020.
Coun. Lorna Storoschuk, chair for the Bonnyville FCSS board, said, “It’s just an expression of interest. That’s not saying that we will get accepted, and once we’re accepted is when the contract stuff would come out.”
Along with Glendon and St. Paul, Bonnyville’s region also encompasses the Village of Vilna and Town of Elk Point. Beale noted it’s an interesting switch compared to before, when the town was within the same boundaries as the City of Cold Lake and Lac La Biche County.
“The province did indicate boundaries may be open for negotiations, but there does need to be a strong case for where they made their errors,” he detailed.
A major change made is the age group the FRN programming will be required to cover compared to the previous model.
“Parent Link was a zero to six (years-old) focused program. It was one of the many programs cancelled. The FRN is zero to 18 (years-old) focused, it’s much more encompassing and there’s a lot more services,” Beale stated.
While some municipalities benefited from the Parent Link program, not all of them had adequate access.
“Parent Link was great in Bonnyville, but it wasn’t in every town in Alberta,” Beale noted. “There were towns that didn’t have Parent Link… The province is looking back and saying ‘we don’t want to have pockets where they get services, and pockets where they don’t.’”
When Beale was originally looking into Bonnyville possibly becoming a hub, he wasn’t in favour of the idea.
“As we looked into it further, my recommendation changed and I believe it’s better if we move forward as a hub. It will be selected first out of all the applicants, and then will work with the ministry to develop the FRN for this region,” he stated. “The hub agency will be at the table with the ministry determining the allocation of the global funding, they’ll be looking at which agencies will be providing the services, and I would rather be at that table than not as we look at what’s going to be delivered and how.”
When Beale considered other local organizations that could put their name forward to be considered for a hub, he didn’t think any would be suitable.
The Bonnyville FCSS can’t submit an expression of interest, but will be involved if the town is chosen.
“FCSS isn’t a legal entity to sign the document, so this would be submitted on behalf of the corporation of Bonnyville,” Beale said.
CAO Mark Power believes if the town was chosen as a hub, it would be similar to the model they have with the FCSS.
“The services are needed. Lots of us don’t need them, but there’s lots of people who do need them and they’re currently getting them. FCSS is the only agency in town that we have available to provide those services, and we would be relying heavily on them in regard to delivering this type of social service… That’s why I think we need to put in the expression of interest, to see what comes with (being the hub). If we’re not a hub, we’re not going to see what comes of it until long after the hub is established and then we apply to deliver spokes services.”
Coun. Elisa Brosseau agreed on the importance of being included in the development process.
“I think we need to step up and see what we’re looking at with the FCSS and putting in an expression of interest.”
