Youth Education Bursary

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Supporting young people who want to support others

As most of you now know, when I was first considering joining The Federation crew, the Youth Education Bursary was one of the things that really drew me to this organization. And since I took on this role, it has consistently surprised and inspired me over the years.

The thing that makes this Federation program so special is that it is more than just a lump sum of financial support given to students. It was created by Federation members as a way of recognizing young people as more than simply their experience in government care. It sees their potential and it helps them reach it.

Now, 12 years after it was created, the Youth Education Bursary remains an intentional and heartfelt way of welcoming the next generation of caregivers and practitioners into our sector. It empowers those who have been recipients of services and support—of care and compassion—to be able to offer the same things to others.

And that’s why I am excited to announce that applications for the 2021 Youth Education Bursary are now open.

Over the past few years, our province has made strides in supporting youth in care through things like tuition waivers. While those are very much steps in the right direction, they aren’t enough on their own—especially since the eligibility criteria for tuition waivers will only help some of BC’s former youth in care.

That’s why the bursary continues to be an important piece of our work. These young people want to join our committed, caring, and hardworking sector and want to be there to support them.

Applications open now

Bursary application forms (and a link to other resources for young people) are available on our website. The deadline to apply is May 28, 2021. Please share this information with young people in your life and others who help support BC’s youth in care.

Going to post-secondary and filling out applications and paperwork cans seem daunting. But the best way to make these kinds of applications less scary for a young person is to have a kind, caring adult work on it with them. So please offer your help to anyone completing the application.

Help spread the word

This year, help us raise awareness about the Youth Education Bursary by displaying a poster in your office or staff room or online. Spread the word among your networks and pass on information to youth in care, people who work with youth in care, and former youth in care. (We have expanded the bursary’s eligibility to include young adults up to the age of 30.)

In closing, I want to sincerely thank all of our members for their ongoing support of this important and meaningful program. Your commitment to the bursary program and the growing community of youth that it has helped to welcome into our sector are two beautiful examples of what Altogether better is all about.

Rick FitzZaland
Executive Director

Help promote the Youth Education Bursary!

Download the 2021 Bursary Promotion Poster [PDF] here and print it off and put it up in your office or share it online. You can also download the bursary promotional images below and share them on your social media channels. Just be sure to include the link fcssbc.ca/youth-bursary. Thanks for helping us help kids in care!!

Looking Forward: Roles at The Federation Team for 2021

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Last week, I offered a bit of a road map in terms of where The Federation was headed in 2021—highlighting some of the biggest issues and initiatives ahead of us. This week I want to take a moment to re-introduce you to the staff team that will be focused on doing this important work. There have been some changes over the past year (and there will be some more over the coming weeks) and I want to make sure you know who you can contact and about what.

Day to day and year to year, The Federation is guided by our members and by the board of directors that are elected by our membership. Over the past week, we have hosted four regional meetings and many of you will have had a chance to connect with your regional directors and other board members. (The Vancouver Coastal meeting is on Monday.) You can find contact information for your entire board of directors on the member’s area of The Federation website. With a new provincial government, your board is even busier than usual meeting with ministers and deputy ministers and helping to ensure that the issues of our sector are making it onto the desks of decision-makers.

Many of you will have also heard that our Associate Executive Director, Rebecca Ataya Lang, will be going on maternity leave at the end of January. I know you all will join me in wishing her and her family well at this very exciting time. Our staff team has been hard at work planning for this transition and you will see that reflected in some new contract positions we posted this week and in some changes in who will be representing The Federation as part of certain projects and initiatives.

Sherry Sinclair joined The Federation team this time last year and will be taking on some of the committee work that Rebecca was focused on. While starting in her new role a month before the outbreak of a global pandemic was not ideal, Sherry’s leadership as our Director of Programs and Services has proven invaluable. Working alongside Bess Williams and Pam Alcorn, Sherry oversees the various programs and services offered to our membership and ensures that everything we do is guided by the experiences and insights and needs of our members. (We have a number of new initiatives in the works so you will be hearing a lot more from this team in the coming months.)

Under the leadership of Taylor Logan, The Federation admin team continues to ensure that we have the structures and systems in place to be able to support all of our programs, initiatives, and advocacy work. Many of you will have met Erin Mallette and Corinne Kornelson on member calls, but those meetings are one small piece of the complex puzzle these two manage behind the scenes in order to keep the starship Federation running smoothly.

We were also joined this year by Christine Smith-Martin and Sheldon Martin who are coordinating the Community Social Services Training Fund that The Federation is hosting (with funding provided by the BC government). Calls for applications will launch soon so sign up for the distribution list to help ensure you get all the up to date information.

And of course, our Communications Coordinator Marshall Watson continues to guide our communications strategy, keep our website running, collect and send you sector news updates (and animal videos), while also overseeing some of our research initiatives and the Oral History Project.

I feel privileged and honoured to be the captain of this crew. They are proof of what altogether better is all about. Like you, they have shown up with compassion, creativity, and commitment over the tumultuous past ten months.

And I also want to thank you, our members, for continuing to be a part of this very big team. There is a lot of potential among this broad federation us and because of your support and engagement, we have an opportunity to make some real change over the year ahead. So stay connected, contact us with your questions, ideas, and concerns, and stay tuned for some important updates in the coming weeks.

Rick FitzZaland
Federation Executive Director

Looking Forward: The Year Ahead at The Federation

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The dual delays of the COVID-19 pandemic and the provincial election halted work on a number of our key initiatives and priority issues. But the new year has found The Federation team busy at work meeting and engaging with our government colleagues and we are keen to push the agenda forward on these items—especially since many of them have been a focus for The Federation and our members for a long, long time.

Yes, there are still a number of serious challenges we need to address. But at the same time, I truly believe that we have before us the opportunity to make some significant and lasting change in this sector and across the province.

1. Social Service Sector Roundtable

The Social Services Sector Roundtable resumed meeting in late 2020 and the representatives at the table are continuing our work with a three-fold focus on (1) reconciliation and decolonizing BC’s social services sector, (2) the way the government works with the sector around service delivery—including contracting and procurement processes—and (3) human resource strategies and compensation plans for the sector.

The work of the Roundtable will be a key focus for The Federation through 2021 and I believe there is a lot of promise and potential in this initiative—because of who is at the table, because of how everyone approaches this work, and because of the shared commitment to the very important priorities we have set. You can learn more about the Roundtable on The Federation website or you can contact me directly.

2. Child and family services

Things are also ramping up and moving along with MCFD and the child and family serving system. This piece of work dates back to the very beginning of The Federation and our earliest days as an organization. It includes work that took place a decade ago on the Residential Redesign consultations and reports and, over more recent years, has expanded to include a focus on services for children and youth with special needs, child care, and the early years.

We are planning on influencing some significant changes in these systems over the coming year and, to help us make that happen, we are bringing on a new team member to head up the work—some specifically dedicated to heading up our efforts related to systems change within child and family services. The posting is live now on The Federation website and we would very much appreciate it if you could circulate it among your networks.

3. A Stronger, more sustainable sector

We are also focusing our upcoming 2021 Social Policy Forum on child and family services. In addition to presentations by Dr. Cindy Blackstock and Dr. Mona Paré, there will be virtual table topics focused on issues such as child care, mental health, privacy and information sharing, unpaid caregivers, and children and youth with special needs.

If you have participated in the past, you will know that the Social Policy Forums serve as a strategic planning session of sorts, where our members, sector allies, and government colleagues all participate alongside our board of directors to design and plan ways we can build a stronger and more sustainable sector. Learn more about this year’s event and register to attend here.

4. Training & Support

We are also continuing to develop training opportunities for Federation members and to explore new ways to support community social services organizations. We have just kicked off the first cohort of our new Transformative Reconciliation program and the Community Social Services Training Fund will launch in the coming months with both training grants and new online learning options.

Get involved

It goes without saying that there are many other programs and services that will be continuing through 2021—the sector news updates throughout the week, the Reconciliation Book Club, the bi-weekly COVID and Your Organization calls, regional meetings, the Research to Practice Network, and the Youth Education Bursary Program (stay tuned—applications open soon).

And all of these things are made possible because of you, our members. Your membership and participation and engagement is something we value much, much more than you may realize. I want to thank you for everything that you have done and sacrificed and committed over the past year and I want to thank you for continuing to be a part of this Federation.

Your wisdom and experience and ideas inspire and enable us to do everything that I talk about in these emails and more. So please stay involved, as much as you are able. Attend the general meetings and the regional meetings. Join us for as much of the Social Policy Forum as your schedule will allow. Call us with your questions or concerns or ideas. We’re always here for you.
Rick FitzZaland
Federation Executive Director