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1. Keeping
It All Together
Paula enrolled in the high school program at Youville
as a 17-year old mother of Jonathon, then aged 7 months. She circled her
three main activities at the time as “ caring for child, going to school,
and working for pay”—a balancing act she was to maintain with few variations
for the time she was in contact with this study.
Paula was living in a
pleasant neighbourhood with a partner who helped with child-raising. The
household was poor, earning less than $15,000 annually, and made use of the
food bank (where Paula volunteered) as well as several other services such
as health clinics, day care, library, and children’s recreational programs.
She came to the program after reading an advertisement for it posted at a
drop-in program, and then made contact with the Brighter Future’s
Transitions West counsellor. A non-smoker and only occasional drinker, Paula
reported her health as very good. A healthy child still being breast fed,
Jonathon was in the infant day care while his mother attended high school
classes and anger management classes.
As part of her initial interview only a few weeks after
intake, Paula reports that Jonathon had no serious health problems or
injuries. She feels she has the support of others when needed, positive
feelings about her abilities as a parent, and on the whole is happy. In
many areas her self-esteem is good, although she feels she has little
control over things that happen to her or no way to solve some of her
problems. As for the program, “It’s really good, there should be more.”
Only in the second interview, about nine months later,
does Paula report that she was extremely depressed after Jonathon was born
and that accessing services of The Network “saved her life”. She feels that
many people have helped her, and is still in touch with her Transitions West
counsellor. She has graduated from high school has started courses at
Algonquin College. As a peer facilitator, she is teaching cooking at a
Brighter Futures prenatal nutrition class (Buns in the Oven) as well as yoga
for children at a local community center. She is less confident in her role
as a parent than before, but credits the Brighter Futures anger management
course with helping her control her anger. Her self-ratings of feelings of
self-worth and ability to control her life are very positive and show marked
improvement. In the last month she has moved to a townhouse in a pleasant
suburb and is living with another young mother of one child. Nothing is
said about the absence of her partner, although she indicates there is good
support from others in her life.
At her final interview 21 months after intake, she is
in full-time attendance at a three-year program at Algonquin College with a
goal of pursuing a university degree and working with children and youth.
She worked part time in the summer at a field placement with a social
agency. She has a new roommate but is living in the same townhouse. She
misses her former roommate and her help and advice on child-raising, but
feels she has a lot of close friends who are her main supports.
Financially, she is better off now with a student loan than she was on
welfare. She has little time in her life for participating in any
programs. Her health is suffering, though, and she fears that school and
stress generally is bringing back problems she has had before with
anorexia.
The best thing Brighter Futures provided her with is
emotional support, she says. In her mind, the program was more directly
helpful to her than Jonathan. However, as a result of the help she
received, she feels she can provide a better future for her son. He is now
in a stable day care situation at her college where he gets along well with
the staff and other children and continues to be healthy. They’re both
looking forward to Brighter Futures camp this summer.
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2. Brief Encounter
Twenty-year-old Cheryl says she would never have heard
of St. Mary’s without the referral from a hospital social worker. At the
time of intake, she and her 18-month old daughter Susan were living with her
parents and sister in the home where she herself was raised as a child. A
high school graduate, Cheryl was taking classes at Algonquin College when
she joined Brighter Future’s Baby and Me program at St. Mary’s.
At the time of the first interview two months later,
Cheryl was no longer at St. Mary’s. She describes herself as a “drop-out”.
Both she and her child are healthy; she feels supported by friends and
family and on the whole has a positive outlook on life, although at times
feels she is a failure and helpless in the face of problems.
A follow up interview one year after intake finds
little changed: Cheryl and her daughter are still living with her family
while she attends classes at Algonquin. Her daughter is in a licensed
family day care home. Thinking back to her time with Brighter Futures,
Cheryl feels the program introduced her to social services in the community
(although the number of services she is using has not increased). Living at
home in a stable family, she hadn’t been introduced to social services
before. She says she also made new friends there who shared her situation,
but she hated the “stupid rules”. Notably, her self-assessment of control
over her life and ability to solve problems is now very strong.
Two years after her brief period in Baby and Me,
Cheryl has moved out of her parents home and is living in a rented house.
She’ll be moving again once the lease there terminates in a few months. But
as much as she acknowledges her parents’ support, she believes she can take
more charge over her own life living on her own. She has graduated from
Algonquin College, taken up a first job in a professional office, quit that
job, and returned to Algonquin for training in another field. She was
“miserable” in her job and now feels she has a much more clear sense of her
career goals.
Reflecting on her experiences, she says she initially
did not want to attend St. Mary’s and disliked various aspects of the home.
But now she realizes that it helped her get to where she is now in her
life. She feels she is a well-prepared mom who can take good care of her
child because of the lessons she learned in the Baby and Me program at St.
Mary’s. “I wouldn’t change history for anything.”
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3. The More Things Change, the More They Remain the Same
When 14-year-old Valerie found out she was pregnant,
she quit using street drugs and alcohol but continued to smoke cigarettes
and marijuana. Her son Tommy was born two weeks past his due date, a
healthy 8-pound, 10-ounce infant who required no special care after birth.
Two years later a healthy daughter, Lynette, is born.
At about that time, the young family moved into a
subsidized housing community that is fighting an uphill battle against
racial tensions, crime and violence. The family is living there when
Valerie enters the Brighter Futures program through Youville Centre and
continues to reside in the same place for the two years she is in contact
with this study. At intake, she describes her neighbourhood as generally
safe for children, with no alcohol or drug use. Her assessment of the
neighbourhood deteriorates over time and at her most recent interview, she
complains that she has had to call the police to intervene with new
neighbours who are involved in drugs.
Valerie was referred to The Network by a social worker
with the Children’s Aid Society. At age 19, she has a Grade 9 education.
Her use of social services in the past is extensive and includes alcohol and
drug abuse counselling, the food bank, services for children with emotional
and health problems, and the walk-in health clinic. She is soon taking
anger and stress management, Baby and Me, and high school courses at
Youville while Tommy (age 4) and Lynette (age 3) are in the day care.
At her second interview eight months later, Valerie is
taking Brighter Futures’ anger and stress management; her children are still
in their preschool programs at Youville and the family went camping with the
Brighter Futures program the previous summer. It is close to Christmas, and
Valerie is setting her sights on graduating from high school next fall. She
is co-president at school and feels that participation by the students is
very important. Her assessment of Tommy now indicates that his aggression
is limiting his ability to participate in programs. Youville has arranged
for another agency outside the network to deliver a specialized, one-to-one
therapy program for Tommy while his is in day care. She has difficulty
managing him. Although she is tired and tense as a parent, she feels she is
doing a good job. Life generally is seeming more difficult than before.
She rates her health as “fair” and although she has quit smoking for several
months, she has stopped and started drinking again.
Valerie can say nothing negative about Brighter
Futures: it has helped her with her education and her social life. The
teachers and Brighter Futures staff have been helpful, understanding and
supportive.
At her last interview two years after intake, Valerie
is having a hard winter. She is worried about Tommy’s aggression; he is
doing well in Beavers and Tai chi but poorly in his Grade 1 class. She’s
doing her best as a mother but it’s a thankless job. An old and a new
boyfriend have come and gone. She has graduated from High School in the
fall as planned and is now looking for work and looking forward to college
in the coming fall. But things are worse than they were six months ago.
She misses the stability that the daily routine at school provided and she
is worse off financially without the bus pass from the school and access to
the food bank. She is not involved in any Brighter Futures programs or any
other programs. Her support from people close to her is “non-existent”.
Valerie believes Tommy gets along better with adults as
a result of the special attention he received at day care. When asked what
was the best thing for her about Brighter Futures, she replies, “Just having
someone to talk to.” She also values her improved parenting skills and the
one-to-one addictions counselling she received. She has now quit drinking
completely. She does not mention high school graduation.
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4. With a Little Help from Her Friends
Maureen, age 21, signed up for Brighter Futures’
Parenting Plus and Baby and Me at the Salvation Army Bethany Hope
Centre with her three-year-old son following a referral from a community
resource center. With a Grade 9 education, she received welfare and lived
with her son in an apartment. During her first interview, she expressed
satisfaction with her role as a mother and generally positive feelings about
her life. In some areas of personal support, however, she feels vulnerable;
for example, she does not believe she can count on others during an
emergency or that she has family and friends who make her feel secure. She
loves the playroom and outdoor area where the playgroup is held and feels
the program is very good.
Nine months later, Maureen is continuing in Brighter
Futures’ Parenting Plus at the Salvation Army Bethany Hope Centre. She
says she especially appreciates that the course is for young/single parents;
as a single parent, she realizes there are times that she really needs
someone to “lend an ear” and that’s when the program is there for her. Her
self-assessment of personal support is now strong; she can count on others
and draw support from friends and family.
Twenty months later, Martin has started junior
kindergarten and is doing well. His mother credits playgroup with drawing
him out of his shyness. The transition worker has helped Maureen by working
on correspondence courses through the I.L.C. (Independent Learning Centre)
program at Salvation Army Bethany Hope Centre, where the playgroup and
parenting courses have been offered. She finds it a quiet place to work
while Martin is in playgroup. Her focus on schooling and adhering to a
routine for herself and her son are keeping them both too busy to
participate in other programs in the community. Maureen feels that this
turn in her life has brought her more respect and more support from her
family.
Looking back on her experience with the Brighter
Futures program, she can only say good things. It was what she needed, to
be around other single parents to talk things through. She felt that if she
was having problems, there would be people there waiting to help her. “It
made me feel more secure.”
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5. 5. Breaking the Chain
Referred to The Network by a friend, Mona entered the
program as a confident 24-year-old woman of mixed Canadian and native
American ancestry. Living alone with a four-year-old son, Mona described
her main activity as going to school, which included a correspondence course
in math while her son attended the Youville day care and preschool. She is
also taking Brighter Future’s anger and stress management and a parenting
program. Although her only other family ties were with a grandmother living
in another city, Mona reported on her intake form that she had a good
informal support system of family and friends. She had strong self-esteem
and felt she had control of her future. Five months later, she also reported
a high level of confidence in her abilities as a parent and enjoyment of
that role. Throughout successive interviews, she describes her son Jason as
happy and healthy, accepted by his peers and reasonably well-behaved.
Only her health history and use of marijuana, alcohol
and cigarettes hint at problems in the past. Jason is the only child born
to her although she has been pregnant three times. A smoker, she also
reported use of marijuana during her pregnancy and although she drinks only
about once per month, she has several drinks on these occasions.
Twelve months after intake into Brighter Futures, Mona
has quite drinking and smoking and is taking swimming lessons. Her use of
other community services has increased from two (library and child care) to
three, to include the walk-in community health clinic. Although not taking
any Brighter Futures programs at the time of the interview, she credits the
anger and stress management program she took there with “straightening me
out—it made me realize how much I was abusing my body.” Somewhat older than
many program participants, Mona is taking courses at a local business
college.
At her final interview, 21 months after she entered
Brighter Futures, Mona has just finished her last exams and graduated from
the business program. She is attending a pre-employment program, working on
her resume and preparing for job interviews while holding down a part-time
job in a fast-food restaurant. Her son has graduated from day care to
attend Grade 1 and a YMCA/YWCA after-school program. She regrets that she
has resumed smoking but feels in general her life is better now than it was
six months ago: her partner has moved in with her and her son and together
they have more money and hope to move to a nicer neighbourhood. In two years
she’d like to have a stable job (with benefits, she notes) and in
five years, she’d like to have an RRSP.
When asked what the biggest thing Brighter Futures did
for her, she replies that the group support was great and the anger
management and parenting courses were excellent. “I was an abused child and
I know these things are passed down. I’m making sure Jason’s childhood is
better than mine. He’s loved.”
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6. A Good Start
When asked at her most recent interview where she sees
herself in one year, in two years, 18-year-old Diane cannot see past high
school. With at least two more years ahead of her to graduation, she has
“no idea” what she’ll be doing in five years. The immediate future is busy
enough: she has found a new day care for her 18-month old daughter and
starts at a new high school herself next month. Until then, she busies
herself around her subsidized apartment, which she says is very nice
although there are “lots of weird people” in the building.
Diane came to St. Mary’s Home as a pregnant 16-year old
on the advice of her grandmother and with the guidance of the Transitions
East counsellor. Three months into her stay there, she is taking Brighter
Future’s smoking cessation and early intervention substance abuse program,
as well as Baby Basics while awaiting the birth of her child.
Describing her main activity as “leisure (reading)”, she smokes about five
cigarettes daily and while sometimes in the past used alcohol, marijuana and
other drugs, she is abstaining from these during her pregnancy. The St.
Mary’s staff are “no problem” and some of the rules are “pretty retarded”.
She has a poor appetite and is distractible and having trouble sleeping; she
feels she has little control over her life, but nevertheless feels happy
most of the time. In this and subsequent interviews, she indicates she has
her own support network of friends and family to draw upon.
At the next interview, 12 months after entering St.
Mary’s, Diane is a high school student living in her own apartment. The
high school has a day care, which cares for her nine-month old daughter
while she attends class. Jessica was born within a week of her due date, a
healthy infant weighing in at 7 pounds, six ounces. They are still
breast-feeding. Diane finds being a parent tiring, but otherwise is very
positive about her new role. Best of all, she has quit smoking thanks to
Brighter Future’s Kick Butt for Two program. Her troubled health at St.
Mary’s has improved; her self-assessment in areas such as control over her
life, feelings of self-worth and outlook on the future are very positive.
Compared with a year ago, Dianne reports using more
services: in addition to the walk-in health clinic and library, she is now
using child care services and specialized health clinics. Looking back at
her time at St. Mary’s, she credits the Baby Basics program for
teaching her how to care for her daughter and believes things are going
easier for her because of her time there. But she also points out that the
programs are worthwhile only if participants want to go. She chose not to go
to Brighter Future’s anger and stress management and did not like attending
Brighter Future’s early intervention substance abuse program. She says she
did not get along well with the other young women in the residence.
At the final interview, almost two years since she
entered St. Mary’s, Dianne reports that Vanessa is doing very, very well and
surpassing most of the milestones in the Brighter Future’s child development
resource she consults. The child was diagnosed with asthma recently, but
the chronic diarrhoea she was experiencing has cleared up since Dianne moved
her to a new day care. They were unable to continue at her previous high
school because of lack of space, but Dianne has applied and been accepted at
a new school to start Grade 11 next month. Apart from these events, nothing
has changed and nothing needs to change in their lives for now. She is not
participating in Brighter Futures or other community programs, but looks
back at her time at St. Mary’s and credits the Brighter Futures program with
giving a better start to Vanessa.
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7. A Safe
Place
to Live
Annie was a troubled and pregnant 15
year old in 1995 when she first learned about the Brighter Futures Program.
Life was hard for her at that point, and she told me that she "had to move
into a maternity home". She had experienced trouble with the law, and had
been living in a group home. She moved into St. Mary's Home and her life
took a turn for the better.
Annie, now 18 years old, gave birth
to a healthy son in July 1995. Today, Mark is a very energetic two and a
half year old toddler. Annie reports that he is doing very well. He is in
a day-care program at a local high school. Annie reports that he is very
social and gets along fabulously with his playmates and day care staff.
Mark is taller than the other children his age and he is talking more than
they do, according to his mother. At one point Annie was concerned that he
was not putting enough sentences together, but she has come to understand
that his speech is developing quite normally. Apparently, he is the only
child in his age group who climbs on some of the play structures in the day
care. When the interviewer queried about just how "energetic" this little
lad is, she indicated that he is very active, but that at times "he can sit
down and play by himself quietly". His health is very good, with the only
health related problem being ear infections, which are occurring less as
time goes by. Annie's health is "fine". She does tend to "run" a little and
she thinks that she could do with more sleep and more physical exercise.
When asked whether Annie feels that
she is doing a good job as a parent, she answered "usually, yes". It seems
that people around her are continuously telling her that she is a good
parent, but she feels that she could do better. She gets stressed out
easily, and when she is stressed, she may yell louder at Mark. She thinks
that the type of punishment she gives him depends on her mood about less
than half the time. On the other hand, when she talks to him about his
behaviour, more than half of the time it is praise.
Annie reports that everything is
good for her these days except that things are stressful and worse for her
in her "personal life". She and her (non live-in) boyfriend experienced
some difficulties and they broke up recently. Apart from this break-up, she
says that the main things happening in her life now is "working hard at
school" full time, and working one day per week at a CPNP program called
"Buns in the Oven" where she is a Program Assistant. She became involved
with the program because she had become a natural, breastfeeding role model
after Mark was born, and had successfully completed several of the Brighter
Futures programs. Brighter Futures staff wanted to build upon Annie’s
natural leadership abilities and interpersonal skills.
She is happy with her living
situation in the Emily Murphy Non-Profit Housing development. Her home is
very comfortable and the neighbourhood is "nice and safe". She can take
Mark outside without any fear and they spend a lot of time in nearby parks.
Economically, things are stable for
Annie. The Children's Aid Society provides her with financial support, and
apparently this will continue until she is twenty one years of age. Her
mother is supportive and Annie has made "good friends" with Brighter Futures
staff, and she can count on their support one hundred per cent.
In 1995, Annie had no choice about
becoming a resident at a maternity home. She did not know what to expect at
that point. She figured that things in her life were so bad (previously,
she had spent time in a detention centre), that entering St. Mary’s Home
could not possibly make things any worse. However, once she got into the
daily routine of living there, something special began to happen. She says
that the Brighter Futures project staff started asking her to help out with
little projects, and at that point Annie felt that "they (Brighter Futures
project staff) started opening a lot of doors" for her. She came to realize
that she had linked up with some people that she could count on for support,
and that she and some of the staff became "good friends".
After Mark was born, she and the
baby began participating in the "Baby and Me" program. The only reason she
had to stop the program is that Mark outgrew it. She feels that both
mother and son benefited greatly from “Baby and Me”. Today, she and Mark
are still eligible for the Brighter Futures summer camping program. She
says that camp "helped him see and do things that he would have never done"
otherwise. She attributes Mark's good development to her entering The
Network.
Brighter Futures also pointed her in
the direction of the Emily Murphy Non-Profit Housing development. After she
first left St. Mary's, she lived in a very undesirable location. With the
help of her ties at Brighter Futures, she got into the Emily Murphy housing
project, and she has only high praise for her place and the neighbourhood.
At her previous location, she could not have taken Mark outside to play, it
was just too rough. “Here at Emily Murphy, Mark can live and play like a
normal child.”
Annie says that she sees herself
finishing High School and getting ready for college in a year from now. She
anticipates still being in college in two years. In 5 years time she sees
herself having completed college, working and reaping the benefits of her
hard work, like having a nice car and home.
Annie reported that she doesn't know what she would have
done if she had passed up the opportunity of accessing Network services.
She has a girlfriend who also lives in the Emily Murphy Housing
development, and she too had been a resident at St. Mary's. These days the
two of them get together for walks outside in their neighbourhood and they
talk a lot about their experiences with Brighter Futures programs. Annie
says that without Brighter Futures, she and her friend don’t know how they
would have “made it”.
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8.
A Need to Learn
Tara is 18 years old and was born in Canada. At the
time of the study her son was 3 months old. He was her second child but she
was parenting for the first time. According to staff, her first child was
taken from her by Children’s Aid Society (CAS) because Tara was considered
to be an at-risk mother. She was very young, poorly educated, had struggled
with the law and had been abused by a stepfather and by a previous
boyfriend. She has a grade 8 education and has been on social assistance.
She admitted herself that she was not ready to be a parent the first time -
she was 16 when her first child was born. When we interviewed Tara, she was
on the waiting list for Youville Centre, a high school for young mothers,
and hoped to complete her secondary education. She had just moved into a new
apartment and had recently met a new boyfriend, who according to staff,
appears to be mature and a good influence.
Tara was staying at a women’s shelter when she first
learned about the prenatal nutrition program. She was referred by staff at
the shelter who felt she would benefit by the support the program could
offer. She told us she was really afraid at first because she didn’t know
anything about caring for herself during her pregnancy or about caring for a
baby. As she said in her own words.
“I needed to learn a lot of things. Before I came
here I didn’t know how to take care of a baby - I didn’t know how to bath a
baby, change the baby or feed the baby.”
In terms of getting to the program, Tara told
us the bus tickets really helped. Many of the women live quite close to the
location where their group is held, but for Tara this was not the case. Tara
is very appreciative of the fresh food and milk she obtains from the
program. She felt that without the program, she and her young son would
starve. They also use the food bank to help get by, but the food bank cannot
provide the fresh food she and her baby need.
Tara told us that that the program has made her a
better mom. She told us about her experiences with her first child and how
the baby was taken into foster care because she “didn’t know anything”. She
didn’t realize how much time a baby would take. Now she is coming to weekly
meetings and learning how to be a good parent. She told us she used to get
frustrated but then she was taught techniques at the program such as baby
massage, how to soothe her baby when he cried and other ways to handle her
child (through the videos).
One of the best things about coming to the program,
Tara told us, was being able to talk to other mothers and get their advice.
It was through the program and the weekly meetings that she met and became
close friends with Lena. (see Lena’s story below) They now get together on
their own time. Lena is not only a friend to Tara but also a role model.
According to Tara, Lena would reassure her throughout her pregnancy. Tara
had a difficult pregnancy, experienced a lot of illness and was very
frightened that things were not right. Lena, who had three children, helped
to support Tara during and after her pregnancy.
An important related piece of information about Tara’s
story is that up to the time she began the program, CAS had a supervisory
order in her file. This order was removed after she enrolled and attended
the program. This is a strong testimonial about the positive impact the
program has made on Tara’s life.
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9.
Role Model
Lena is 36 years old and
was born in Jamaica. She lives with her husband who is still looking for
work after losing his job at a small printing company. She has just had her
fourth child, and according to staff, just loves having children and being a
mom. Lena learned about CPNP through a neighbour. She and her husband have
lived in Canada less than two years, having immigrated to join a family
business and give their children a better life. Lena was feeling very
isolated at home during this pregnancy. Two of her children were in school
full time and her husband worked long hours. When she heard about the
program and what it had to offer, she welcomed the opportunity to meet other
mothers, and learn more about the “Canadian” way of life. Because her
family’s current financial situation was not very good, she also looked
forward to the food supplements that the program would supply.
Lena told us how much she
enjoyed coming to the program. The location is ideal for her because it is
in the same centre as her doctor - “one stop shopping” she calls it.
Although some of the women take the bus to get there, she says she is lucky
because she can walk from her apartment. In addition to her youngest child,
a son, who is in the program, she brings his sister. “My daughter really
looks forward to coming,” she told us. Lena also talked about how enriched
she felt from meeting women from other cultures - there are a number of
Muslim women in the group. She says she likes that “her horizons are
expanded”.
As an experienced mom, Lena sees herself as a
bit of a role model for the younger moms. She has become close to one mom in
particular, Tara. She told us she felt good about being able to support
Tara. When Tara first started coming to the program, she was very afraid
about having her baby and not being able to look after the baby. Lena helped
to reassure her by relaying some of her own fears with her first pregnancy.
Lena and Tara meet at other times in between the program and have become
friends. When staff first told Tara about Youville Centre, a high school for
young mothers, Lena encouraged her to think about putting her name on the
waiting list. Staff have observed the close relationship between Lena and
Tara and the positive benefit it has had for both of them.
For
Lena, the program has helped in many ways. She is breastfeeding and told us
it is going very well thanks to the ongoing advice she has been given by the
lactation consultant. She had difficulty breastfeeding her previous children
and she credits the program with her success this time. She told us that in
general she is much more relaxed and a lot less critical of herself. She
finds it great to get out and enjoys the adult company. She has learned a
lot about pregnancy, birth control and nutrition. Even though she was an
experienced mom, she says that the program has given her added confidence
that she can raise her children to be healthy and productive adults. Her
family appreciates the access to fresh food during this difficult time. Most
of all, the program has given Lena the opportunity to share her life
experiences with others and to make new friends.
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10. Young Dad
I have
been attending the Young Fathers’ Program for over four years. My
experiences there have been great. I started attending the program when my
son was only a few months old and I feel that Brighter Futures and the Young
Fathers’ Program has changed my life for the better.
When my
son was born, I was scared that I wasn’t going to be a good father. I didn’t
have enough confidence in myself. Ever since I was a little boy, I was
taught that fathers worked and mothers were the primary caregivers. The
Young Fathers’ Program showed me a whole new light. I learned that fathers
were equally as important as mothers and that my son needs the same love and
support from me as he does from his mother.
The
staff and volunteers at Brighter Futures and the Young Fathers’ Program are
very kind, understanding and resourceful people. I thank them with all my
heart for helping me become the father I am today. I am much more confident
and caring as a father and as a person altogether. The Young Fathers’
Program at Youville is a great place to relax, have fun, and most of all,
talk about various issues that fathers deal with on a daily basis. I have in
the past brought other young fathers to the program.
Brighter Futures has done an excellent job promoting fatherhood and I hope
they keep up the good work because the people that benefit from it the most
are the children. I am still attending the Young Fathers’ Program and I am
confident that the they will help me in the future with other issues as my
son grows and develops.
Thank you for all your hard work.
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