A new program aiming to keep mothers and children together has been making an impact in Saskatoon.
Sweet Dreams, a program that supports at risk mothers and their children by giving them a place to stay, opened its doors last June and is supported using the social impact bond funding model, which is the first of its kind in Canada.
As a partnership between the Government of Saskatchewan and private investors, the funding model is used to track success and outcomes over a period of time.
Over the next five years, one million dollars will be put towards the program. $500,000 was invested by Wally and Colleen Mah of North Ridge Developments to purchase the house and Conexus Credit Union invested another $500,000.
“I think it’s a more effective way for community, government and social agencies to come together to make more meaningful impacts on social issues,” said Jacques DeCorby with Conexus Credit Union.
Pointing to the limitations of governments, DeCorby said the funding model does have advantages because private sectors may have better ways of deciding outcomes.
“The government can leverage the expertise of the business community because normally it’s either corporations or wealthy business people that are investing in these things,” he said. “So that group goes to the social agencies and looks for proposals and then they decide and negotiate the proposal.”
In addition to investing money into the project, DeCorby said they will maintain relationships with the moms.
“Our goal is never just to write a big check, we always look to make a partnership and find other ways to work with them,” he said.
The house has a capacity for eight moms and their children and is serviced by EGADZ, Saskatoon’s Downtown Youth Centre, having been active for almost 25 years.
Don Meikle with EGADZ said this program gets the community involved in raising children. He said they had tried a long time to get funding for the program and is happy with how things are turning out.
“It just forced different levels of government to do things differently, to work with families,” he said. “It focuses on keeping kids out of care, not keeping them in care.”
Meikle said the milestone of opening this program is huge because there’s a lot of work that needs to be done around the area of mothers and children.
“I think that there’s a lot of assumptions in the community but to put it in perspective, if a mother is living in an abusive situation, or a mother’s living in a shelter, and her shelter stay’s coming up, their child then becomes automatically at risk,” he said.
Meikle added the program has been having a positive impact on the moms. Sweet Dreams is focusing on helping them connect with their children and make a transition back into the community.
“What this program is trying to do is give them the opportunity to have a safe place to stay until they can find a better alternative and while they’re living with us can get themselves into educational or work employment situations,” he said.
Meikle said although there were some concerns as to how Sweet Dreams would work out, the program has been a positive experience since opening.
“[The moms] have built those relationships together and they support each other in the homes,” he said. “We’ve had a couple moms who came in for a very short stay, we had a pregnant mom come in who didn’t have anywhere to go … she now moved on to a healthy family member.”
Meikle said Sweet Dreams has been a major asset to their continuum of care, adding to their 16 homes.
“It’s been good for us to put that next level of support in place … and actually challenging us as a partnership and government to look ahead to the future,” he said.
