In celebration of BC’s Child Care Month and Youth Week, ISSofBC cut the ribbon on the Moving Ahead program for youth and young adults as well as its Child Minding centre during an open house Tuesday at its Alexandra Road location in Richmond.
Lois Armerding, ISSofBC’s ELSA Manager in Richmond and co-host of the event said during the open house staff were pleased to welcome others within the community who work with similar clients.
“We feel that some excellent connections were made and strengthened. We look forward to building these relationships in order to provide the best possible services to Richmond clients,” she said.
The Child Minding centre, which currently has 25 children, services parents who otherwise would not have access to child care. The service enables parents to study English in the ELSA program while their children are well-taken care of by qualified staff.
In addition to the free Child Minding services, ISSofBC Richmond recently launched another program for newcomers to Canada. ISSofBC’s Moving Ahead Program (MAP) provides individualized support to immigrant and refugee youth and young adults who are experiencing barriers to settling in Canada.
The two new ISSofBC programs highlighted complement long-established Richmond services such as ELSA; Building Together settlement, women’s and volunteer connection services; Skills Connect for Immigrants program which connects skilled immigrants with relevant work; and low-cost English upgrading and Citizenship preparation courses.
In addition to community service providers, Richmond City Councillor Linda Barnes and BC Liberal Incumbent MLA for Richmond East Linda Reid also attended the open house.
