Children & Family Support

Everyone at KIS, in some capacity, is working with children, families and caregivers to enhance strengths, to build capacities and to promote healthy development and settlement journey. KIS delivers a range of services guided by principles that focus on building supportive relationships, facilitating growth, respecting diversity and furthering community development.
In Kamloops there are many organizations supporting families, they are known by various titles: family resource programs, family resource centres, community centres, community services, aboriginal friendship centres, early years centres, YMCA, family places, school boards, toy libraries, and more.

Our names are different, but they share the same vision.
By enhancing the capacity and confidence of parents and caregivers, as well as providing resources for children to thrive, we all contribute to strengthen families and communities as a whole.

Family Support Services offered at KIS

Early Years Bridging Program

The Bridging Program provides families with young children a safe and supportive environment to play and learn, connect with others, learn about parenting within a Canadian context, and
obtain information about resources available to them in Kamloops. The goal of the program is for clients to develop trusting relationships, enhance their self-esteem, learn supportive
parenting strategies and develop and reinforce their commitment to learning English as a Second language.

The program has two components —one for children and the other for parents— and is 2 Early Childhood Educators, an assistant and the Cultural Social Worker. The children’s program emulates the goals of a pre-school environment, and includes supervised free play, “Circle Time”, outside play, and music therapy. The parents’ program includes guest speakers for specific topics, based on their expressed needs, to build parents’ capacity and resiliency. Examples include nutrition, cooking, overall health and well being (and specific topics such as diabetes management), the effects of sleep deprivation, and the importance of family routines (mealtime, playtime, bedtime, school, etc.) and specific parenting skills.
The program also includes home visits to further strengthen support to families. Sessions are offered monthly, and the first 4 sessions are mandatory. Clients are referred to the program by the Settlement Counsellors. Transportation is provided where it presents a barrier to attendance.

Immigrant Parents As Literacy Supporters (iPALS) offered through KIS Childminding Program

Our experience working with immigrant parents demonstrates their desire to increase their knowledge about specific ways they can support their children’s literacy development. The goal of iPALS is to work with parents in supporting their children’s early language, literacy and numeracy development. The program is a culturally responsive family literacy program designed to help immigrant and refugee families – and their young children –flourish in their new communities. iPALS is designed to enhance parents’ self esteem, increase their awareness of their children’s development (social, emotional, cognitive, and physical), improve their understanding of their dual role as parent-teacher, and enhance their own literacy development. iPALS is facilitated with the option of weekly or biweekly for 9 sessions of 1.5hr each. An interpreter is used to assist with translation of more abstract concepts when needed.

360° Supports for Parents with young children

KIS Early Years Parenting Support Program is designed to meet the unique and challenging needs of each family whose child is attending our Childminding program while accessing KIS services. Through the agency qualified Childminding team and the support of KIS En Route Program Navigator, four main activities are designed to address commonly observed presenting needs of immigrant and refugee parents; attachment and bonding issues, difficulty to trust, difficulty to be emotionally available due to past trauma. Some parents have never been exposed to early childhood programs before and it is very stressful for them to leave their child in our care. The program fosters parental involvement in their child’s life through education and engagement where the parents feel emotionally supported and feel that the program is applicable to their lives, as it provides knowledge and skills to thrive in their new context while their cultural needs are accommodated. The importance of guiding and supporting newcomer parents and their children is highly important in preparation for transition into the school system and we have the opportunity at KIS to offer this support.

Resources