THURSDAY
S I N C E
DECEMBER 13, 2012 Vol. 117, Issue 231
Biomass 1 8 9 5 furnace fuels local business Page 2
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PROUDLY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF ROSSLAND, WARFIELD, TRAIL, MONTROSE, FRUITVALE & SALMO
FAIR rewarded for family-first idea Society awarded $10,000 for ‘Keeping Vunerable Families Together’ concept BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
An idea whose time has come was awarded $10,000 last week for an innovative proposal on improving social and economic well being in Greater Trail. Although still in the gestation phase, Trail’s Family and Individuals Resource (FAIR) centre society’s Keeping Vulnerable Families Together—to help families avoid foster care—was given the money by the Columbia Basin Trust (CBT) as part of the provincewide BC Ideas competition. Rather than placing a child in foster care, the FAIR solution will allow vulnerable children and their parents to stay together by offering supported housing and training in areas such as parenting and employment skills. “This idea grew out of the belief that some parents—often people whose own childhoods were chaotic or abusive—need more intensive help in order to be successful as parents,” said Gail Lavery, FAIR executive director, in a press release.
DECKING THE WINDOWS
There are inter-generational barriers in many of these families, FAIR’s proposal statement read. The parents love their kids, want to be parents to them and the kids want to go home. It also costs the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) a great deal to keep them in foster care. In many cases parents and children can be effectively reunited. “In the case of a sizable minority—generally parents who come from a generation or more of substance abuse, poverty and other issues that have prevented them from having their own needs met as children—they are not successful,” FAIR’s website read. The program will be based on FAIR’s current Second Stage Housing for women who have left a Transition House and are needing additional time and support. It will involve purchase or rental of an apartment building for parents who are still struggling with parenting issues, substance abuse and basic life skills so children could be safely returned home, providing an incentive to parents and minimizing the mutual trauma of separation. See PROGRAM, Page 3
SCHOOL DISTRICT 20
Trustees discuss cash BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
If you want to get rich, don’t run for the school board. On Monday night the board of trustees for School District 20 (Kootenay Columbia) approved a B.C. Consumer Price Index average increase to their remuneration for the coming year (current average is .5 per cent). That sum (around $105) will be added to the annual remuneration the district’s nine trustees already receive of $10,519. The board chair earns $13,525 while the vice chair pulls in $11,521. The agenda said the board’s new
rates will be “As per Policy 5.10: Board of Education Remuneration, effective Dec. 2, 2012, trustee remuneration will be increased by the BC Consumer Price Index average of December 2011 to November 2012.” But the actual increase is unknown right now, said SD20 secretary treasurer Natalie Verigin. “The current October, 2011 to October, 2012 CPI is at .5 per cent and we will need to wait to see what next month is reported at,” she said. All trustee earnings are reported online in the Statement of Financial Information report posted on See TRUSTEES, Page 3
TIMOTHY SCHAFER PHOTO
Melissa Castle re-arranges the Christmas-themed window display in the newly opened Kris Kringle’s Christmas Corner. The Spokane Street store has been open for almost three weeks, carrying festive gear and gifts.
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