COCHRANE— Greeting those in need of a hand up with a smile and readily available support, the front-line workers at Cochrane Family and Community Support Services and the Family Resources Network are creating a safe space centred on compassion and kindness.
It takes courage to walk through the doors of these critical community resources to ask for help, said Family Resource Network resource worker Terri Lauer, and once inside a team of resource workers is ready to help problem solve.
“There is no problem is too big that it can’t be solved,” Lauer said. “We’re glad you came and we’re here to help.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the demographics that visit the centres and this has helped normalized asking for help when it is needed. The isolation brought on by the virus has forced people to recognize the critical need for community connections and aid when experiencing a crisis.
The Family and Community Support Services and Family Resource Network have been consistently steady with clients, but they are starting to see an increase in people whose lives have been transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic, said Family Resource Network resource worker Sherry Grund.
“The complexities of how COVID has impacted our community are there,” Grund said.
There has been a shift of needs in the community and COVID-19 shutdowns have created increasing economic challenges for community members. Many jobs have been impacted or lost in the pandemic, while inflation has ballooned increasing the cost of rent, food and other needs.
These shutdowns have also impacted people's mental health because the feeling of isolation has risen as people have been unable to connect.
While there may be more common issues they see from clients, each person presents a unique story.
Most people often know what they want to do when they reach out for help and the teams at the Family Resource Network and Family and Community Support Services will work to guide them to the right places to get the information they need to move forward.
“When somebody is in a crisis, we don’t own the crisis but we support them through it. We walk beside them and metaphorically hold their hand,” said Family and Community Support Services rural programming director Wendy Farnsworth. “They need to get the skills to carry on and problem solve. Sometimes when we walk beside people it can be accompanying them to the RCMP station because they have to report a sexual assault, or maybe it’s somebody in the community who knows about us walking somebody in to see us.”
Family and Community Support Services and Family Resource Network front-line workers are united by a philosophy when it comes to helping people.
“We focus on people’s strength and we support them to build their capacity. We’re also trauma-informed because we don’t want to re-traumatize anyone walking through our doors. We’re inclusive, anybody can come to see us,” Farnsworth said.
They can offer tools to help build clients' skills allowing them to become advocates and champions for their success in life.
When someone connects with the Family Resource Network or Cochrane Family and Community Supports Services at first, they will be triaged by administration staff to help unpack the best way to provide aid.
Cochrane families with children aged zero to 18 will connect with the Family Resource Network, Cochranites who are 18 and older will go to Family and Community Support Services. Those who live outside Cochrane in West Rocky View County connect with Farnsworth.
“We all help people in the same way,” Farnsworth said. “What we do is we help problem solve and we connect people to resources internal or external.”
At the start, clients will be connected for internal or external programming to create a system of support.
“We have fabulous programming here in Cochrane. It’s one of the things I’m most proud of is how well we work with our clients and envelope our partners,” Farnsworth said. “We work closely together. We have a diversity of expertise. We have registered social workers, a registered psychologist, I’m a registered counsellor and financial coach and we all really complement each other.”
The goal is to problem solve and provide support services around a client, based on the information they provide. This can include advocacy and supportive counselling to identify goals and provide wrap-around coordinated services, Grund said.
“It really depends on what the issues are that are presenting for the individual and we all work as a team and we all have our different areas of expertise,” she said.
What is vital is that everyone feels a connection to the community, Lauer said, and many who visit Family and Community Support Services and Family Resource Network may have lost the critical connection to natural supports in the community.
“Natural supports are vital, they are the lifeline of every human being,” Lauer said. “We do our best to find the best fits for those that are isolated and to help get them connected and lift up and lift through.”
Farnsworth said if you are a parent with children or a grandparent who is parenting Family Resource Network can help tackle and answer questions about parenting.
The greatest driver of clients to Family and Community Support Services and Family Resource Network is word-of-mouth, along with those learning about the organizations online.
Programs are changing all the time based on needs they see in the community, Lauer said, and the organizations actively work to target, identify and work to meet those needs.
The front-line team sees what is happening and if a common issue emerges can put in a program that can be delivered widely to the community as a preventative strategy.
“We want people to understand the tools that they can use and help get a leg up in a different area of their life if that works for them,” Grund said.
Funding for Family and Community Support Services is split between the Town of Cochrane, Rocky View County and the Alberta Government. The programming provided by the Support Services and the Family Resource Centre is available to all residents in Cochrane and communities on the west side of Rocky View County.
Family and Community Support Services and the Family Resource Centre remain open to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. during the week. People can walk in for support, but phone and Zoom meetings are also available.
