Community helps celebrate 60 years

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A round dance at the Canadian Native Friendship Centre on Nov. 30 helped celebrate the Family Centre's 60 years of service to Edmonton residents.

The Family Centre, located at 9912-106 St., offers a variety of programs, including those that tackle parenting concerns and anger management issues. A post-partum depression group, in-home parenting support, parenting education courses, counseling for individuals, couples or families, and marriage preparation courses are also on offer.

Bev Bagnall, program director of the Family Centre, is excited about the number of programs set up for Aboriginal people, including its spirituality and culture component.

"We can take kids out to the bush, away from the distractions of the city and away from the negative influences, to a lodge and tipis. It helps us to have contact with mother earth. They can reconnect with their spirit because the basis for all of our teaching ends up there," she said.

She said that a lot of Aboriginal people in the community are using the centre's services. She finds it amazing how many Aboriginal people are reaching out for help.

"People come here because they feel comfortable coming here. If I'm not able to help them directly, I will refer them to other people who can. It is not just one facet of healing that we use as in conventional healing methods, but it is about traditional healing methods as well, a blend of both. We have a huge Aboriginal team, about 25 Aboriginal staff that are really respected in the community. We also utilize services from different Elders around the community," she said.

"Everyone who comes to the centre is accepted unconditionally. We are not rigid. We are flexible. We serve all people, religions and races. We have people on our team who are very traditional. We have people who speak their languages fluently. We do not discriminate. We have Aboriginal people who are Christian on our team, because that is what the Aboriginal people in the city represent.

"Our people here are diverse, so we try to make the best match we can with the kids," Bev Bignal said.

Rod Rode, the executive director of the Family Centre, recalled the early days of the centre, before welfare programs. The centre distributed food and clothing to people in need. There weren't any professional counselors or psychologists in the city either.

"We started out providing that service, but we no longer provide the hard services-food, clothing and shelter. There are other agencies that do that. But we continue to provide professional counseling services. With the help of United Way, we have some capacity to help people with these services," he said.

"Our programs have changed over the years, but we've always done four things and we continue doing them. One is we help families to raise healthy children. Two, we help people build and maintain healthy and strong relationships and workplaces. Three, we help people heal. And four, we help people who have trouble coping with important life changes," he said.

"I very much like the culture here because it is a growing, learning culture," said Rode. "It is not a closed agency. It is open to all sorts of opinions and information. We are also very excited about our Aboriginal unit, our First Nations unit, and we are trying to incorporate that perspective into our programming. I would like at some point in the future, once we've done a little bit more building and developing, to take some of the traditional healing approaches we are learning from our colleagues. We'd like to ask them to use their traditional methods with non-Aboriginal peoples, because I think that they have the potential to be very helpful to people of all nationalities who are trying to heal, " Rode said.

"We've done a number of events throughout the year to celebrate this event, some of them internal," said Marianne Inkpen, co-chair of the 60th anniversary committee. "We had a dinner at the Mayfield Inn for staff, friends, family and othr agencies on Oct. 5. It was wonderful. More than 200 people attended the event. The speaker Lynn Johnston did a wonderful speech on families. She said 'You have the potential to be who you want to be in life, and to take what you want from life.' Family does not just mean your parents, but it can also mean whoever you connect with in life."