Family Resource Centre

A meeting place for parents

The Family Resource Centre is a meeting place that nurtures the skills of parents and supports their role within the family, breaks the isolation of families and fosters the development of children by encouraging them to play to learn and to stay in school. The centre offers many different services, including a toy lending library and workshops for parents and their children. It is a place where children can develop their psychomotor and social skills and where parents can take a break and access different resources for their child’s education. Access to Family Resource Centre services requires a Family Resource Centre member card.

Access to Family Resource Centre services requires a Family Resource Centre member card.

This program is offered at the Saint-Laurent YMCA.

Created in 1999, the toy library lends out toys for free to families who are members of the FRC. It has more than 2000 educational toys for children aged 0 to 5. To date, more than 5000 children have benefited from this toy lending service and from other activities and programs offered at the toy library. In 2008, the toy library received a medal from the City of Saint-Laurent. By encouraging the re-use of toys, the toy library promotes sustainable consumption.

Offered to parents and children aged 0 to 5, early childhood stimulation workshops teach tools to encourage a child’s stimulation through play. These workshops also help children transition from daycare to school.

Based on the 40 Developmental Assets, these interactive workshops empower parents by offering them tools for successful parenting that take into account the realities families face each day. In these workshops, parents learn how to put the 40 Developmental Assets into practice within their family to promote the overall development of their children. These forty assets represent the building blocks that children need to become caring and contributing adults. Moreover, the workshops provide an opportunity for parents to talk to each other, share their experiences and learn from one another. Childcare is available during the workshops.

The Club de la réussite, a program for children aged 6 to 13, seeks achieve the following objectives:

motivate children to do their homework;
foster their sense of achievement;
support and encourage their learning;
help them improve their academic performance.

The club also offers summer and leadership activities.

Place aux mamans is a peer support group that allows mothers to take a break by facilitating the exchange of child care. At Place aux mamans, mothers take turns watching each other’s children in the FRC while their kids participate in educational activities.

Established in 2006 as part of the 40 Developmental Assets workshops, this task force became the Association des pères profamille (APPF) upon receiving non-profit status in 2012. Today, the association has 160 members. Its objectives are:

to raise awareness among fathers about the importance of their involvement in their child’s school life;
to improve trust and communication within families;
to recognize the role of fathers in social issues.

One of the association’s priorities is to encourage bonding between fathers and their children through different activities.