Interior Community Services

Babies Head Start is a pregnancy outreach service incorporating free nutrition/vitamin supplements, education, individual and family support, group work and community referrals. Services are provided free to pregnant women through to 6 months postnatal. The Babies Head Start team is comprised of Outreach Workers, a Registered Nurse and a Dental Hygienist. Babies Head Start is a self-referral program, although community referrals are welcomed with the permission of the client.

Families First is a preventative, family centered in home support program. Families who are eligible will be parenting an infant less than 3 months old upon entry. Families are supported with current information and education taken from an up to date family curriculum. Family Support workers promote a safe and nurturing environment for the parent and child. The program promotes:

• parent/child interaction/bonding
• language development
• routines
• relationship/trust building
• child development
• positive parenting strategies.

Families First assists families in connecting with other families and other community resources. Families First runs Mother Goose Group Sessions 3x/year as part of its service to the families within the program. This service is a long-term program that invites families to be involved until the infant reaches 3 to 5yrs of age. This service is offered in Kamloops, Chase, Barriere, Cache Creek and Ashcroft. Referrals can be made by: Self, Public Health Nurses or other community professionals.

The P.A.I.D. program is a parenting program that provides education, support and counselling for parents who are experiencing challenges in their role as parents. The program structure consists of eight to nine week sessions offered three times a year. Groups' sessions take place twice a week followed by one to one sessions weekly. Referrals may be made by; self, Social Worker, Public Health Worker or other professionals in the community.

First Steps is an education program for young mothers between the ages of 15 and 24 who are continuing their high school education. First Steps offers academic upgrading, parenting and life skills classes and support services. Specialized onsite Childcare provides an opportunity for parents to further develop their parenting skills in a supportive environment. First Steps is a partnership program between Thompson Rivers University, Boys and Girls Club of Kamloops, School District #73 and Interior Community Services. First Steps is self-referral program.

Location:

215 (office) | S201-202 (classroom)
750 Cottonwood Avenue
Kamloops,BC VSB 3J3

Phone: 250 -376-9119 (office) 250-376-7518 (classroom)

Transitional Support to Children is a program designed to assist children and their families in preparing for adoptive placements. The goal of the program is to provide a service that engages, involves, strengthens and supports families to ensure the children's safety, permanency and well being. Support is provided to stabilize and educate families in transition to adoption. Emphasis is placed on enhancing the attachment between children and their families, and connecting families with resources that will sustain them in the future.

The Family Service Program is an outreach service that provides support to families experiencing challenges. These may include issues such as:

• enhancing child safety 
• encouraging healthy parent/child relationships
• parenting
• trauma
• grief/loss
• problem solving and decision making
• supporting families to access community resources

The main purpose of the Family Service Program is to restore family functioning by supporting families to discover ways of finding their own solutions, make positive choices and decisions about their situations, and to utilize community resources. Program components include family assessment, goal setting, intervention, as well as transition planning.

The Family Service Program also offers Mind over Madder. This is an eight week group designed to support participants to understand anger and learn skills to manage conflict. The approach of the program is based in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and utilizes a variety of additional therapeutic models. Sessions occur once weekly over two hours.

For more information call 250-554-3134.

This service provides early intervention in families with children aged birth-6. The goal of this service is to:

• enhance and strengthen attachment relationships and
• for parents to be able to demonstrate an increased knowledge of child development milestones and parenting practices that promote healthy child development. 

This program addresses the needs to create secure attachment relationships between parents and their young children. Attachment based theories, research and interventions indicate that secure parent/child relationships are necessary for optimal emotional health.

The Supervised and Supportive Visitation Program offers families an opportunity to spend time together in a safe, supportive environment. The supervisors assist parents in strengthening their parental knowledge, abilities and communication skills. They assist parents and children to understand the reasons why visitation requires supervision and to manage their feelings of grief and loss during their separation. They support parents in improving the relationships within their family so that they are able to visit with, or safely care for, their children unsupervised.

Families with children who require or could benefit from a supervised, supportive environment are eligible for the program. Any community professional can make a referral by calling Interior Community Services and asking for the Supervised and Supportive Visitation Program. The program is available to any person in the community on both a fee-for-service basis and to client referrals of the Ministry of Children and Family Development referral.