Invest in Kids shuttering its doors at end of September
September 10, 2010
THE CANADIAN PRESS
A national organization dedicated to supporting and educating parents as they raise their children says it will be winding down its operations at the end of September.
The charitable group Invest in Kids issued a statement Thursday, saying that it has been struggling since the economic downturn began two years ago, and has determined it can no longer continue operations.
“We know that parents are the most important channel to support healthy childhood outcomes,” board chair Michael Edwards said in the release.
“And we know all parents want to do a good job, but they feel unsupported and struggle with the knowledge and skills to be effective. With Invest in Kids’ departure from the national scene Canadian parents are left with a great void — there are now no champions for this important social issue.”
Over the last 15 years, the organization has developed training and resource materials for parents and professionals who assist them.
Funding has come from a variety of sources, including corporations, foundations and individuals, co-CEO Kara Holm said in an interview.
But governments that were accessing the programs for training saw their training budgets dry up, she said.
The organization employs 12 staff members, down from more than 20 a couple of years ago. Its annual budget would have been $2.5 million this year, Holm said.
The organization would need to find a multi-year commitment of $500,000 by September 30 in order to stay open.
“We’ve been really leading research practice and a body of knowledge on parenting and parent life in Canada. We conduct our own proprietary research, and that’s first-hand interviews, focus groups, that kind of thing, with parents, to understand the experience of Canadian parents,” Holm said.
“We take that data, we interpret it, and we translate it into accessible resources for parents and the professionals who work with them.”
Holm, the parent of a six-year-old daughter, called the winding down of the organization a “really unfortunate loss.”
“The notion that I’m not alone in finding parenting a difficult challenge and that there’s nothing wrong with me for struggling, and that I’m OK if I ask for help, it’s not a bad thing — that is a really important message, and too few parents know that,” she said.
“We’ve found that parents will say universally this is the most important thing I’m going to do — raise a child. And that we are all afraid to ask for help, we’re afraid to be identified as having failed in some way, when in fact the way to stop ourselves from failing is to get the help we want and need.”
Invest is Kids is trying to make its intellectual property assets available to other non-profits and government organizations. It’s also seeking a permanent home for its website www.parents2parents.ca.
Holm and the other members of the leadership team, Susan Smith and Lisa McKeen, said it’s hoped that others will build on the work of Invest in Kids.
“It is a real tragedy that positive parenting is not on the investment agenda of governments, businesses and individuals in a meaningful way,” they said in the statement.
With a file from Brandie Weikle.