Introducing New Westminster Family Place

Discovery Team members: Nicole Geyer, Helen Stortini, Sohee Kim
Status: Year Two funding

Our SVP Early Years Innovation Fund is fuelling ground-breaking ideas and stepping in to provide critical and unique support that fills a gap in the Early Years funding horizon. Our proposed work with New Westminster Family Place (NWFP) is just another example of this in action. (Read the Early Years Innovation Fund Mid-Point Impact Report here.)

SVP and NWFP So Far…

We are thrilled to re-introduce a prospective Early Years Innovation Fund Investee to the SVP Community: New Westminster Family Place

NWFP is no stranger to SVP. They received an Early Years Innovation Fund micro-grant of $5,000 in December 2022. 

SVP first met with NWFP in the fall of 2022 after they responded to our Early Years Innovation Fund call for applications. It was clear that Dana Osiowy, their Executive Director, had an emergent and exciting idea. At the time, the idea was so nascent, they didn’t feel ready to apply for the full three-year funding opportunity. However, SVP saw the potential and wanted to help. So we did! We provided NWFP with a small grant and access to our capacity-building programming, including time with our Social Impact and Strategy Coach, Karen Gelb. 

“This grant is extremely unique. We have deep acknowledgement that we don’t have a ton of capacity. While we are working so hard, I had an idea that I know we can do and that will have community-wide impact, but we just didn’t have any capacity to explore it. SVP saw that opportunity and is supporting us to develop the idea. I have never seen that before!” —NWFP 

About NWFP

New Westminster Family Place has been a second home for families in New West since 1989. They provide essential services and resources that empower families to thrive. These include the following:

• Prenatal and postnatal programs 
• Referrals and supports for necessities such as food and housing 
• Mental health services such as 1:1 family support and navigation
• Parent support groups for parents with children of all ages
• Play groups 
• Family literacy programs 
• Parent education workshops on baby and family life fundamentals 
• Settlement supports for newcomer families 
• Access to early identification and programming for developmental delays
• Support for early identification of speech and language challenges 
• And so much more

In July 2023 they had 2,072 visitors to their programming: 1,118 children and 954 parents. They delivered more than 70 hours of group programming and provided more than 30 hours of 1:1 support, to more than 60 families, outside of their regular group programming.  

The role of New West Family Place is to support and scaffold the family and caregiver support system that surrounds a child, to help kids and families thrive. At NWFP, they see the community surrounding the child as one that includes their parents/guardians, caregivers, siblings, other community-based supports, organizations, and the broader community. They work alongside the interconnected system that encompasses a child’s life to support and uplift families.

Their idea: Bring Family Place to the Streets – spreading a strength-based approach throughout New West to transform community programming.

NWFP plans to lead a shift in the way service providers and community leaders think about and support families – from the current default deficit-based approach or a focus on the “problems” families have to a strength-based approach that will help children thrive.

Playing a Role in Systems Change 

Research and evidence shows that positive childhood experiences can mitigate the impacts of adverse childhood experiences (ACES). Evidence has proven that programs that focus on the strengths of families work better, and the positive outcomes last longer. Currently, however, our societal systems use a deficit-based approach: what is wrong with a family’s parenting, with their child, with their childhood. The medical system isn’t looking at what strengths families have to build on when managing wellness. The school system isn’t looking at a child’s strengths to build upon. But we know that when families concentrate on what they are good at and build upon those strengths, they become more capable of taking action, which leads to more opportunities for success. 

Bringing Family Place to the Streets is a three-phase plan to reshape how various players in their community currently support parents and their children by providing the tools, resources, and training to shift daily interactions from a deficit-based to strength-based approach. Through this project, NWFP strives to play a role in systems change by changing practices across sectors (structural change); relationships, connections, and power dynamics (relational change); and changing mindsets and behaviours (transformative change).  

Who This Will Support…

The past few years of COVID and the rising cost of living have compounded the stressors on parents, caregivers, and in turn children. These two community-wide events (COVID and the rising cost of living) add to existing stressors that NWFP’s families experience, such as poverty, trauma, family involvement in the justice system, housing and food insecurity, and exposure to violence in the home. As a result, vulnerable families are now even more burdened than they were before.

The Bringing Family Place to the Streets  initiative will serve families who already access NWFP’s services and, critically, those who are outside of the current system of service delivery. NWFP will reach those families that are not being reached by mainstream systems by training and supporting a diverse cross-section of the community who engage with families on a daily basis, such as parks and rec instructors, yoga teachers, baristas and more. In addition, this undertaking holds the promise of offering substantial support to the people who will be doing this work. Those people will be deeper connected to their own mental health, which will in turn positively  impact their family members and coworkers. As an integral component of mental health education, this project plays a pivotal role in fostering a culture of optimism, fortitude, and holistic well-being across the community.

Capacity-building Needs…

With the receipt of the mini grant in 2022, New West Family Place took full advantage of the suite of our offerings. These included training from New School of Fundraising, the Leadership Luncheon, and working with Social Impact Coach Karen Gelb. This has already led to significant benefits to Family Place, including the following:

• Creation and implementation of a Theory of Change, which enabled them to secure funding for a maternal mental health project
• Creation and implementation of Curriculum and Strength Based Worksheet for programming
• Creation and implementation of an Outcomes Tracking System
• Review of funding proposal and feedback report through the Unfunded List
• Decision and implementation of their first Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system
• Panel discussion on the Early Years at SVP’s Annual General Meeting
• New and future partnership options with Blind Beginnings, Red Fox, and West Coast Kids Cancer Foundation

All of this was accomplished in six months! 

What NWFP needs going forward:

• Fund development systems 
• Human Resource systems support
• Management and leadership support

Learn more about NWFP here.

Have thoughts or feedback to share with us about this potential SVP investment? Want to get involved with this organization as an Expert on Call, Project Volunteer, or Lead Partner? Reach out to Helen.