Dear friends,

Due to Covid-19, we decided to offer online Family Enrichment courses across Canada this school year via Zoom. Some have started already or will shortly.  We had hoped that Small Groups could meet in person, however, with Covid-19 restrictions increasing, we will probably need to have some flexibility, so each Small Group will have to decide how they will meet. The important thing is to give participants an opportunity to be together and discuss important topics, especially in these stressful times.

We know that this pandemic can be wearing some parents down.  We still have resources for parents on our national website under the “COVID-19” tab. The Technical Note was put together by an experienced team and we hope it will continue to help parents in the coming months. https://www.familydevelopment.ca/coronaschool-101/

In order to help young professionals who might be feeling isolated by working from home, we have decided to offer a National Personal Project course.  We had an introductory session on October 17, 2020 (with over 90 participants!) and it was fantastic!  We have over 100 participants registered from across Canada …from Vancouver to Rimouski! We hope they will all really enjoy this course!

I thought it would be a good idea for all of you to know what courses are being offered across Canada.  If you think of anyone who would enjoy taking a course this year, please forward this email to them. Since they are online, it would be great to have small groups from different parts of the country, including provinces that don’t have a Family Enrichment Centre.  Also, we have a National French course called “Grandir en couple”.  So, let’s take advantage of this unique opportunity!  You can always find information for any city on our national website: www.familydevelopment.ca

Here’s the list of courses/websites from across Canada:

Vancouver: Pre-Adolescence course (for parents of children aged 11-13 yrs) – starting on January 30, 2021   https://pife.ca/courses/pre-adolescence-course/ 

Mill Bay (BC): First Decisions course (This course began last January and was not completed because of the pandemic, so it is now resuming where it left off- registration is complete).

Edmonton: First Steps (for parents of children aged 0-3 yrs) – starting on November 28, 2020 on Saturday evenings (8:00-9:30 p.m.)  https://familyenrichmentedmonton.ca/upcoming-courses/

Calgary: First Steps (for parents of children aged 0-3 yrs) – starting on January 16, 2021 on Saturday mornings (10:00-11:30 a.m.) https://www.familyenrichmentcalgary.ca/courses

Toronto: Courses: to be determined.  If there’s a course that you would like to participate in, please contact Jim Pope at jkpope@hushmail.com

We are hoping to offer the “Grandparents” course in Toronto in 2021. This is the first time we’ve offered this program in over 10 yrs.  In order to be relevant, we needed to refresh the cases to reflect the current situation in society with advanced technology etc.

Ottawa: National Personal Project (for single young professionals) – starting on November 14, 2020  We would be happy to have more men join the course!

https://www.familydevelopment.ca/national-personal-project-2020/ For more info/to register, contact info@familydevelopment.ca

Married Love (for couples of all ages) – starting on November 7, 2020. https://www.familyenrichmentottawa.ca

Montreal: Married Love (for couples of all ages) – started on October 17, 2020. https://fde-mtl.ca/en/#offered-courses

National French course: Grandir en couple (for couples of all ages) will be offered for francophone couples who want to deepen their friendship and improve their relationship – starting on November 28, 2020. We will have couples from different cities across Québec and hopefully across Canada . For more information, please contact: Yves St-Maurice at ydesm@hotmail.ca. To register for this course: https://fde-mtl.ca/fr/#offered-courses

Québec City: Participants in Québec City will take part in Grandir en couple.

If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I hope that our efforts to offer online courses will be a big help and fun experience for all.

Take care of you and yours!

Gillian Roussy

President