Government invites Mennonites to develop alternative to social services

Edmonton

Mike Cardinal, until recently the Minister of Family and Social Services, issued the invitation in March, noting that "the government makes a poor parent" and needs alternatives to current systems of intervention in abusive families. In May, the ministry granted $36,000 to a research team to prepare a plan for a 10-year project in one of the high-need neighbourhoods of Edmonton.

Cardinal thought of Mennonites because of his personal experience of their social concern. As a teenager in Calling Lake, Alta., he enjoyed the friendship of voluntary service personnel sent by the Mennonite Board of Missions. He gives much credit for his career as first Aboriginal cabinet minister in Alberta, to the VSers who mentored him at a critical time in his life.

Last year, at an informal lunch with Ike Glick and Leo Jantzi, both former VSers in Calling Lake, Cardinal challenged them to work with the churches in Edmonton to develop a model of family support that would help parents care for their children and avoid abuse.

Glick, together with Dave Hubert, former director of MCC Employment Concerns, honed a vision in discussions with pastors and social service professionals of Edmonton's eight Mennonite churches. A Christian team of social services staff and VSers would live in a community, initially serving 15 families. They would model healthy parenting and relationships, and facilitate community-building and learning about interpersonal communication, budgeting, nutrition, health, home maintenance and other life skills. Local service agencies would be used as needed for counselling, with an emphasis on peer support groups. The vision also strongly emphasizes that spiritual care would be offered through links to Mennonite churches and the personal witness of the staff.

Cardinal endorsed the initiative at a March meeting with the Mennonite ministerium, and further arrangements for financing and networking with government services followed in April and May. Since May 13, a research team coordinated by Hubert has been busy researching parallel models around the continent, discussing VS recruitment with Mennonite agencies, consulting with social services people, and working with staffing structures and policies. The inter-Mennonite team includes Irene Baergen, I.N. Glick, David Hubert, Melita Rempel-Burkholder, Jim Shantz, Gordon Smith and David Wilde.

Despite the recent resignation of Cardinal, the research team has received assurances that the program still has the green light.

Melita Rempel-Burkholder, Dave Hubert

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