‘Tis the season for celebration! And the Single Parent Employment Initative (SPEI), a unique government employment program launched just over a year ago, is helping to make this Christmas brighter for hundreds of single parents throughout the province.

Christmas is a time for people to reminisce about the year that’s past and think about  what’s to come in the year ahead.

Meet some of the thousands of single parents in B.C. who are involved in the program.

Shannon is looking forward to her new career as a Medical Device Reprocessing Technician thanks to the Single Parent Employment Initiative.

Thanks to the help of his mother and grandmother, Mark’s daughters have always been well cared for and even a little spoiled. But this Christmas is going to be very different for Mark himself.

In Spring 2016, Amanda became involved in the Single Parent Employment Initiative (SPEI) and started working toward her goal of becoming a medical administrative assistant and creating a more secure future for herself and her children.

Tetiana is a native of Ukraine who moved to B.C. in 2014 in search of a better life for her and her two young sons.

Heidi never wanted to be on welfare.