həy̓χʷət kʷθə šxʷhəliʔ leləm (Healing Spirit House) officially welcomed the community to its first open house since clients moved into the state-of-the-art, Indigenous-inspired, purpose-built home of The Maples Adolescent Treatment Centre and Provincial Assessment Centre.

Merissa Giesbrecht and her husband Jason never imagined that their path to finally having the family they had dreamed about would arrive through a distant relative.

Thousands of parents around the province are returning to work, going back to school or pursuing other opportunities, thanks to the Province funding more than 10,400 new, affordable licensed child care spaces.

With the average-sized household in Canada at 2.9 people, Natalie and Merv realize their family of 12 is somewhat unusual.

“Family is everything,” says Sonja Paine.

“The second I open my door, they are part of my family, so they know they have someone in their corner,” says Anna Miller about the 200 youth she estimates she has fostered over the past 36 years.

If you think you know what being a foster parent in 2019 looks like, you probably haven’t talked to Sandy Case, president of the Vancouver Island (South) Foster Parent Association and 25-year foster caregiver.

Families throughout British Columbia will have better access to closer-to-home child care, thanks to new provincial guidelines that allow local governments to pair funding programs and purchase land to create new child care spaces.