Steinbach Family Resource Centre hits milestone in people served

The Steinbach Family Resource Centre (SFRC) has hit a milestone in the number of people served last year.

SFRC released its annual report and one of the outcomes in 2023-2024 (the organization’s year begins in April) was the number of families served which was cited at 673 compared to 553 families the year before. Dalton said this has to do with an increase in resource distribution over the last couple of years, especially since the pandemic. She said challenges with the economy and more immigrant and refugee families looking for supports have also added to the number of families served.

“Our strategic focus as an organization is making sure the community knows who we are and what we do has really had that snowball effect. As well, that the more people who hear about us the more people come through our doors and the more programming we have to offer,” she said.

The organization reports an operating budget of $415,332 for 2023-2024 compared to $353,938 for the year prior.

“It’s been a really good year,” said executive director Jo-Anne Dalton. “A lot of growth for the organization, a lot of strategic planning, a lot of really determining if our systems and structures and internal practices are poised for us to be able to grow at the rate that we are growing so it has been a good year for that.”

One of the challenges faced by SFRC is funding, especially from the federal government. The organization’s biggest programming grant came from the Canada prenatal nutrition program, which used to cover SFRC 100 percent. Now, that grant only covers 42 percent of all programming.

Another challenge for the organization is accommodating the number of families coming through the doors. Dalton said there is a waitlist for toddler programing that will be addressed this year as shifts are made in scheduling.

“It can be quite a challenge for us to convey the educational component for the group and the nutrition component and kind of be able to connect with each individual when we have that many people (20 to 25) in the group,” she said.

“We’re constantly looking at those groups to see if there are ways we can divide them or offer them on multiple times, but our calendar is quite full so that continues to be something that we’re looking at on the regular.”

Some of the positives in 2023-2024 are the steady growth of the SFRC’s scavenger hunt. It brought in about $35,000 last fiscal year and the year before it brought in about half that amount.

“I think it’s a very unique concept, our scavenger hunt, because it brings all these organizations together into one big family, which is really what we advocate for is to bring people together, to bring organizations together, to bring community together,” said Dalton.

Other positives were the expansion of SFRC’s food program and preschool programs. Last summer, was also the first time SFRC ran its road safety pre-school program, which it was able to do thanks to the sponsorship of United Transportation Driver Training.

“We ran two sessions last summer, then this summer it’s set to start next week,” said Dalton.

For this year, SFRC plans on doing some renovation work as it got a grant from the Steinbach Community Foundation. It will also install some new garden boxes in the front to support the garden program. With the retirement of two long-term staff members, SFRC will be able to merge positions and streamline some processes, as well as add some hours to focus on family groups by having the same facilitator rather than a different facilitator for each group.

Finally, with the change in the parade route this year for Pioneer Days (the parade will stop outside SFRC’s office) Dalton is inviting the community to stop by and take part in a celebration.