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Sooke Family Resource Society plans for public market

A new venture will showcase 10 years of service in Sooke
14497sookeMotherGoose-3
Under clear sunny skies on Wednesday

Britt Santowski

Sooke News Mirror

The Sooke Family Resource Society has been at Sooke’s Child, Youth and Family Centre for 10 years now. And shortly, magically, without physically moving, they will be acquiring a new address (6672 Wadams Way, Sooke, BC V9Z 0H3) with the grand opening of their new entrance on one of Sooke’s newest roads, Wadams Way.

Come September, SFRS will be hosting a Wadams Way Public Market, on site. The event will be outside, and will feature a raffle draw and prizes. The event is being hosted in collaboration with event partners, The Children’s Health Foundation of Vancouver Island, RBC Royal Bank, and M’akola Group of Societies.

Besides a children’s corner with games and face-painting, the first Wadams Way Public Market will feature quite an extensive list of activities and events. “Join us for an exciting day of amazing artisans,” reads a statement provided by SFRS, “a gourmet food truck line up, a giant silent auction filled with an amazing variety of goods and services, raffles for incredible prize packages, multiple 50/50 draws, and a great day of family fun.”

And while this event celebrates a decade-long relationship in their current space and a new address, the Sooke Family Resource Society will also be celebrating 30 years of services to the community members of Sooke, Victoria, Port Renfrew and the peninsula.

“Community support supports the community,” said Daphne Raymond, the Program Manager of Children and Family Services at SFRS. “The work we do is all about building community.”

The many programs this non-profit organization run in Sooke include child and family drop-in programs (such as Mother Goose, which also recently celebrated turning 10), prenatal education, childcare referral, a toy lending library, family support programs, and family development programs to mention just a few.

As a non-profit social service agency, SFRS operates independently and is governed by it’s own board of directors. Their central mandate is to serve the needs of the community.

“We are dedicated to caring for families and individuals of all ages and abilities in communities on southern Vancouver Island,” reads their Mission Statement, “by providing services in parenting support, child, youth and family development, as well as mental health and addictions.”

In other words, their services are preventative focused, and work towards establishing a solid foundation for a strong community. Preventative health, in a reactive medical response system that is only activated when people are ill, often remains un- or underfunded. As such, SFRS is constantly seeking and applying for program funding. Their recent newsletter announced that the Youth Outreach and Navigator program was a result of a successful funding application from Coast Capital Savings. And the United Way of Greater Victoria currently funds the Sooke Prenatal Outreach program and a Pacheedaht Families program in Port Renfrew.

Everyone who works at SFRS is passionate about serving the community, said Raymond, “but it’s always a struggle to ensure the continuation of services to the community, based on limited funding resources.”

Many of the programs offered at SFRS depend on community support and donations. According to Raymond, the prenatal outreach support  and the nutrition support programs simply wouldn’t exist without it. And components of some family resource programs also rely heavily on donations.

In any growing community, there is also a growing community need. And Sooke is indeed a growing community.

There are many ways to donate.

You can donate on their website, using the “Donate with Canada Helps” button. This will take you to a CanadaHelps.org secure donation page that lets you specify the amount.

A lesser known way to donate is through United Way. Donors can specify their donations go to Sooke’s SFRS.

You can also use the old-fashioned way of simply walking in to the office and donating. Before September, use the Townsend address; afterwards, use the Wadams way. Either way, the same door opens.

Or, simply mark your calendar and attend their September 27 event. If you are interested in being a vendor, contact Shannon at sbrower@sfrs.ca to reserve a booth or to make further inquiries. This event will also couple as a one-day fund raising event.

The Sooke Family Resource Society has been serving the greater Sooke community since 1984.