Family and Children’s services in Waterloo Region say staff cuts and group home closures are coming. The organization is dealing with a 2.5 million dollar funding shortfall.
Sandy Falkiner has fostered more than one hundred girls and worked with Family and Children's Services of the Waterloo Region for 18-years. The Falkiners welcomed their fifth teen girl last week because of two group homes that are set to close in November. A third, Bedeviere already closed 3 months ago in June.
With the closures, come job cuts, 24.7 to be specific out of a staff of more than 500.
Falkiner calls those decisions brave. Like many she believes family settings are better for children than group care. She hopes more people will follow her lead.
“When people think of group homes they think these kids just cant function in a home setting they’re there because of their behaviours that’s not the reason part of the reason is we don’t have enough foster homes.
The executive director of Family and Children's services Alison Scott says she's now executed all the cuts she can without threatening the safety of children in their care, but the agency still have a 1.2 million dollar shortfall.
I need our staff to really be available for the referrals and investigations at the front end of our services and support families to try and keep their kids at home and the only way we could fund those positions was take a look at the other parts of our services." says Scott.
Scott goes on to say her agency isn't alone, 42 of 48 children's aid organizations across the province will be in the red this year because of a 67-million dollar gap in provincial funding.
A spokesperson for the Minister of Children and Youth services says the 2012-2013 budget will stay at last years levels despite the province's economic challenges and it will work closely with the Waterloo agency to develop cost cutting strategies.
