Large family connection centre in Kelowna will replace services offered at Starbright – Okanagan | 24CA News
A 12,000 sq. foot house on the Capri Centre Mall in Kelowna is being renovated to turn into considered one of 4 new household connection centres in B.C.
The provincial authorities is altering the supply of assist providers for youngsters and has chosen 4 communities for its Family Connection Centre (FCC) pilots, together with Kelowna.
In an e-mail to Global News, the Ministry of Children and Family Development acknowledged, “to grow and expand service available to families, the Ministry undertook a selection process inviting service providers to submit proposals outlining how they could deliver services to families through Family Connection Centre pilots.”
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ARC Programs was chosen because the profitable operator within the Central Okanagan.
ARC is a non-public firm that has supplied assist providers to Okanagan youngsters and youth for 32 years.
“We’ve provided a whole continuum of services during that period of time for kids and families, and a lot of like, sort of youth-specific services,” mentioned ARC Programs CEO Shane Picken. “In the last 10 years, we have concentrated much more around children, youth with special needs, support needs, those types of services.”
The service supply change signifies that the Starbright Children’s Development Centre should shut for good after 57 years of serving Central Okanagan youngsters, one thing Starbright administration isn’t pleased about.
“The definition of pilot does not mean that you destroy what currently exists and put something else in place just to see if it works. A pilot should be something in addition to what currently exists to see if there is a better way of doing it,” mentioned Starbright government director Rhonda Nelson. “And if it doesn’t work, I don’t know what will be there for parents and for families.”
The non-profit group, which serves youngsters from beginning to high school entry age, utilized for the contract and was shocked to not obtain it and turn into a part of the province’s new hub mannequin system.
“We have the facilities, we have the background, we’ve got the personnel,” Nelson mentioned. “In one department, in our physiotherapy department, there’s over 100 years of experience based on the people within that department.”
The new household connection centre, which can change providers presently supplied at Starbright, is anticipated to be up and working in April or May.
“We’ve put together a coalition of agencies that have specific expertise in the different areas of service that are going to be needed, and we will all work together out of the family connection center, and other locations in the community,” Picken mentioned.
ARC, which is receiving $14 million per yr from the federal government to run the household connection centre, can be sub-contracting out providers to different non-public corporations and not-for-profit organizations to assist ship providers.
“You’re going get the same or similar services through the new system, and it won’t be limited to zero to six,” Picken mentioned. “Kids have different needs that manifest over the course of their lifetime, so we’re serving zero to 18.”
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Picken assured households presently within the system that they’ll get first precedence to entry providers.
“We won’t be opening to the public until everybody that’s currently being served at Starbright or other agencies have access to us,” he mentioned.
Nelson mentioned Starbright put forth a really robust utility for the contract, even outlining how it will have developed its applications to fulfill the wants of older youngsters.
“I can’t imagine that the proposal that we had provided would not have been deemed very, very workable, very doable, and would have served the needs of the Central Okanagan in an extraordinary way,” she mentioned.
Starbright serves a few thousand youngsters yearly.
Nelson mentioned she worries concerning the transition the youngsters and households now face on account of this resolution.
“It is not an easy thing for families who have children who depend on a team approach for services to start anew,” she mentioned.
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