The Family Assistance Program, which started out as a pilot project three years ago, is now incorporated into the Elizabeth House continuum of services. Educators Tina Pallotta and Isabelle Vincent work with the client families in their homes, helping them with the difficulties they may have in adjusting to parenthood or independent living. "One of our aims is to empower the clients to take positive action for themselves," says educator Tina Pallotta.

Following a policy of doing with the clients, rather than doing for them, Elizabeth House educators help young parents identify their needs and find the organization or individual who can provide the services to meet these needs. They then help the parent get in touch with the service provider, and support the parent to follow through in getting the required services. For example, a young mother living on her own with a toddler may be having problems making ends meet and be very isolated, staying in a small apartment with her baby most of the time. She may need help connecting with a group for young parents, where she can socialize with her peers while her child is stimulated and has a chance to socialize with other children. Mom might also require assistance in learning how to manage a budget. Educators can help her set up a budget, and locate community resources such as community kitchens, where she can use her limited money more effectively by participating in bulk buying programs with other families.

At times much more intensive intervention is required, for example, if there is evidence of conjugal violence or sexual abuse. Admitting or sometimes even realising that there is a problem is a huge step for many victims. Helping the client identify available options, to see what the result of her/his action may be, and to help her/him prepare for what follows is part of the Educator's task.

"We hope that the timely intervention offered by the Family Assistance Program may reduce the need for residential placement," said Linda Schachtler, Executive Director of Elizabeth House. "Our clientele includes former residents of Elizabeth House who are now living independently, young parents who have been referred to Elizabeth House by other organisations, and occasionally self-referred clients. Both parents and children are considered to be clients of Elizabeth House.

We advocate on behalf of the client, and work with other organisations to ensure continuity of service, and the development and effective use of complementary services and programs. The Family Assistance program was developed as a result of the strategic planning process which included wide community consultation and feedback. The need for such a program is so great that our resources are stretched to the limit."

Remember summer? For some Elizabeth House clients, it was a memorable one. Through a donation from a private benefactor, the Elizabeth House Summer Program once again offered residential and external clients a 4-day camping experience at Camp Kinkora in the Laurentians.

Five young mothers opted to attend camp with their children. Four of the five mothers were teens. Camp gave these young women the opportunity to have fun and socialize with their peers. Camp activities also facilitated informal discussions about their hopes for the future, parenting issues and relationships.

The campers were involved in the preparations for camp. They chose the menu for meals and prepared the grocery list. All grown-up campers, young moms and staff, shared cooking and cleaning responsibilities. They were split up in two groups with tasks alternating every day to ensure that everyone contributed to camp maintenance. One group was responsible for cooking and serving meals while the other group was responsible for clean up after meals. As well, while one group was involved in their tasks, the other group was responsible for baby-sitting all the children.

The children flourished within this relaxed atmosphere with plenty of space, activities, stimulation and a chance to be with other toddlers and babies. Respite care was made available in the afternoons to allow the mothers to enjoy outdoor activities such as swimming, canoeing, boating and hiking. In the evening, once the children were in bed, the campers played cards and board games, did arts and crafts projects, and participated in campfire activities.

The clinical objectives behind this experience were as follows:

Clinically, the program achieved its goals. The clinical staff was able to create a supportive setting in a relaxed rural environment. The program structure and responsibility given the young mothers encouraged them to be accountable for their actions and nurtured a co-operative spirit. This attitude created an atmosphere of mutual support, tolerance and respect. The division of the campers into two groups sharing tasks equally alleviated some of the conflicts and the stress of group living and encouraged co-operation in order to complete the tasks. This also provided a safe environment for the children. The campers easily developed a routine around their chores and activities and effectively created and maintained a safe and clean environment. The group living arrangement gave the young mothers the opportunity to share and compare parenting strategies (ex: routine, discipline, stimulation) and to learn from each other. It also provided Elizabeth House staff an ideal opportunity to support the young mothers' parenting decisions and their parenting styles and to offer feedback to the young mothers at appropriate times. This recognition and validation of the young mothers' choices was a great way to raise their self-esteem. Working closely with the young mothers supervising the children gave the staff opportunities to model appropriate behavior and parenting strategies. The mothers were receptive to suggestions and guidance from the Elizabeth House staff.

Do you need to know who to turn to for help dealing with child care issues, for counselling, or which organisations in your neighbourhood offer fun activities for children? Now the names and phone numbers of organisations offering these services, as well as many others of interest to parents with young children in the NDG/Montreal West and Downtown/Westmount areas are listed in handy Neighbourhood Family Guides. These guides are the result of a lot of hard work by Linda Hachey of the Women's Y, under the auspices of the Table de concertation en matière de santé des tout-petits ( 0 à 5 ans).

The members of the Table de concertation come from various organisations in the community that work with young mothers. They work together to ensure that the public is aware of services available to families through community organisations and knows how to access these services. They also work to ensure that the various organisations are also aware of the programs and services each offers. The Table de concertation focuses on programs, services and issues of concern regarding children 0 to five years old.

Linda Schachtler, the executive Director of Elizabeth House, was one of twelve people invited to become a member of the Benny Farm Task Force established in July 2002 by the Canada Lands Company CLC Limited (Canada Lands). The Task Force set guidelines and principles for the development of the Benny Farm site. The members of the Task Force were chosen to ensure that the diverging views on the needs of the community would be fairly represented, and for their expertise.

The task force agreed on the following objectives for the redevelopment of the Benny Farm site:

Elizabeth House has helped set up a new non-profit organization to develop transitional housing for single parent families headed by young women 16 to 24 years old with very young children (newborn to 2 years old). Called Les Maisons transitionelles O3 (On Our Own), the project will provide young mothers with affordable housing in a supportive environment, where they can get help developing the skills they need to become fully independent. Les Maisons transitionelles O3 (On Our Own) have submitted a proposal to the City of Montreal through the Accès-Logis program to renovate a total of 18 two and three bedroom apartments, complete with laundry facilities, as well as a secure play area for children, and a communal area where groups could meet. The tenants of the O3 project would be young mothers (with their babies) who are ready for independent living with minimal support but have little or no family or community support, or are in financial difficulty. Elizabeth House will work closely with the O3 Board of Directors to make housing and services available to these young families.

Young mothers taking part in the O3 project will be living with their peers as part of a community. Support programs will be offered to the tenants of the O3 program based on their needs. Programs could include such things as learning how to manage money and how to budget, how to access community services, how to find a job, and collective cooking.

Jim Lyons, Vice-President of Canada Lands Company, has made a commitment to reserve a place on the Benny Farm site for the O3 project, as well as for the other Accès-Logis projects which were presented as part of the Fonds foncier communautaire Benny Farm's redevelopment proposal.

Linda Schachtler, Executive Director of Elizabeth House, states, "NDG has many organizations that provide services geared to supporting and enhancing the parenting capacity of young mothers, but the young families need to be living within the community to maximally benefit from these services. We know that one of the greatest obstacles to successful independent living is the lack of safe and affordable housing. To have such housing on the Benny Farm site, close to services, in particular the CLSC, which provides so many services to our clients and other young families, is really an optimal solution.

Supporting a young mother's integration into the community benefits the mother, her child and the community. What the community gives these young women they will give back. The community gains a fully contributing member, and the mother gains a network of support, which in turn enhances her ability to parent her child."

Other organizations who have expressed their support for the O3 project include Batshaw Youth and Family Services, the Black Community Resource Centre, The Women's Y, and Catholic Community Centres, to name a few.

Elizabeth House is pleased with the Canada Lands decision which will see social housing developed on the Benny farm site. Carol Norman, Director of Professional and Rehabilitation Services at Elizabeth House stated that getting the commitment to build such housing is a great achievement. "Safe, affordable housing is a basic need that must be met before any other issues for successful integration into the community can be dealt with," Ms. Norman said.

Elizabeth House, along with the NDG Community Council, the Fonds foncier communautaire Benny Farm, the Friends of Benny Farm, and many residents of NDG and other neighbouring areas feel victorious that the social vocation of the Benny Farm site has been secured. They are pleased that Canada Lands intends to integrate five Accès-Logis projects into the final design plan. The five projects for low-cost and/or adapted housing have been developed by organizations including Head & Hands, the Constance Lethbridge Rehabilitation Centre, Project Chance, the NDG Senior Citizens' Council and Elizabeth House. These organizations and agencies have been working for many years to have low cost and affordable housing for specific clientele available on the Benny Farm site.

However, Canada Lands decision to ask the architectural Saia-Barbarese to prepare the final development plans for the Benny Farm site has not met with universal acclaim. The Friends of Benny Farm (Friends), an NDG community coalition including over 50 agencies and community organizations, 24 leaders of west-end religious

organizations and thousands of NDG residents have been working for the past 11 years with the architectural firm L'OEUF to develop a design which will meet the needs of the NDG community. L'OEUF was one of the architectural firms who were invited to submit a design for consideration by the Benny Farm Task Force. One of the main features of the L'OEUF design was the renovation of as many of the existing housing units as possible. The Friends are worried that the final plan for the redevelopment of Benny Farm will favour brand new construction instead of renovation of the existing buildings. Expert opinion presented to the Task Force confirms that renovating existing buildings would cost approximately $15,000 to $20,000 less per unit than demolishing them and building new housing. Whether the buildings are renovated or demolished will also effect how quickly housing becomes available on the site.

The Friends of Benny Farm are urging Canada Lands and the City of Montreal to explore alternatives such as a land trust that would ensure that housing on the Benny Farm site remains affordable in the long term. The Friends of Benny Farm also want to ensure that the community continues to have a say in what happens on the Benny Farm site, and what use is made of the land and buildings on the site.

"We have some of the same concerns as the community," said Elizabeth House's Linda Schachtler. "The cost of housing on the site, whether the housing remains affordable, and how soon housing is available will obviously have a big impact on our young mothers and any other potential tenants of Benny Farm."

On November 30th, the Task Force made 40 final recommendations for the redevelopment of Benny Farm. Included were recommendations that the community garden be located on the East side of the site, that outdoor spaces be universally physically accessible, with clear distinctions between private and public spaces. Buildings on Benny and Walkley will be limited to two stories where they face existing homes. It was recommended that higher buildings be located on the South side and along Cavendish Boulevard and be 6 stories high. Community services will be located on Monkland, facing Benny Park. Different housing and tenure types will be distributed throughout the site. Parking should be underground, where possible. The Task Force noted that the buildings should not be designated according to tenants' income levels and recommended that some housing be made available for July 1, 2003, if possible.

Do you have a crib or a stroller, or especially a double stroller looking for a new home? These are a few of the items which we can always use.

The Ministry of Health and Social Services provides the operating budget for Elizabeth House, but many of the services we offer are supported by private donations to the Elizabeth House Foundation, which is our only source of discretionary money. The Elizabeth House Foundation is a public foundation whose objectives are to serve and support the clientele of Elizabeth House and to come to its aid, and to provide outreach programs and support services to young parents and their families in the greater community.

In particular, we would like to thank the Literacy Centre of Quebec for their very generous donation which allowed us to start setting up a literacy program, the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, Gamma Province Quebec for their support of the literacy program, Diane Bellefeuille and the law firm of Fraser, Milner and Casgrain and the Scotia Bank, Queen Mary branch, for their extremely generous donation of Christmas gifts and clothing for our young moms and babies, Necdet Kendir, owner of Cartes Etc. and President of the NDG Merchants Association for all the Halloween goodies he donated for our clients. And there are those who give more intangibly, but nonetheless without whom our work would be so much more difficult: Mark Poddubiuk and the architectural team at L'OEUF who have donated so many hours to supporting our plans for affordable housing for young mothers in NDG, Rachel Kapasi for helping proofread the Young Parent's handbook, Axess Communications who provide Elizabeth House with internet services, Susan Tress, our webmaster, and the volunteers who donate their time and energy so that our young moms can go to school, to appointments, or enjoy the occasional activity without Baby.

Members of the Elizabeth House Family Assistance team will be going out to other agencies and community organizations to talk about the programs Elizabeth House has to offer to young families. (They'll also show you The Young Parent's Handbook as well.) If you would like our team to come and speak to members of your organization, please call Carol Norman or Linda Schachtler at (514) 482-2488.