Communities that Care - Northern Corridor

Village of Pemberton, Lilawat Nation, Baptiste, Naquatqua Band, Skatin and the area up to the Douglas Band

The Model

The philosophy of Communities that Care (CTC) is that through a process of reduction of risk and strengthening of protective factors throughout the course of young people's development that we can prevent many problems from developing.

The six specific problems CTC addresses are: substance abuse, delinquency, teenage pregnancy, academic difficulty, violence, and depression/anxiety.

The process of CTC begins with completing a community assessment (including a youth survey and archival data.) The results of this survey are used to identify community strengths and challenges and to assess community resources and gaps.

C6 2007 COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT

Prevention

CTC can be described as a community coalition which implements evidence based L programs to fill in the gaps. It depends on support from a community board made up of local service, health and education providers, local volunteers, parents, youth, community groups and on the participation of key stakeholders.

Our Structure

In the Sea to Sky region CTC includes local boards (action groups) in the Northern Corridor, Whistler and Squamish.

2008 saw the establishment of a regional CTC committee made up of key leaders. This works in conjunction with the local community boards. In Squamish CTC has been running for ten years, in Whistler for five years and it was extended to the northern corridor in December 2006. Find out how the model works click here

Implementation

Based on the community assessment and risk and protective factors identified in the community assessment the C6 CTC group has begun to implement prevention programs they selected based on gaps in services and need.

Parenting Wisely and Positive Action were selected by CTC coalition members in 2008 to target risk factors of early academic failure and family management. Several communities within C6 have purchased and trained staff in the use of Parenting Wisely.

Fall 2008 CTC in the Sea to Sky corridor was approached by the National Crime Prevention Unit to make an application to the Aboriginal Fund. In the fall 2009 an application will be submitted that if successful will mean five year funding for Positive Action in Signal Hill Elementary, Head of the Lake, Pemberton High and Xit'olacw Schools. The funding would allow the schools and surrounding communities to significantly implement Positive Action components.

Stakeholders for the Positive Action Proposal are: Sea to Sky Community Services, School District 48, Head of the Lake School, Skatin and Xit'olacw Schools.

Strengthening Families was selected to target the risk factor of family management and family history of problem behaviour.

February 2010 Our CTC group has successfully completed the training for Strengthening Families. There is an excellent core group of individuals dedicated to working with youth and their families and we are now working on organizing the first session to be offered to the families. For those not lucky enough to have been involved in that training session there are many support jobs that will be needed to run a successful program. Help is needed in these areas from organizing community funding and donations to food and transportation. Contact Cheryl Dolan at cdolan@sd48.bc.ca to help or for more information.