BC Council for Families

Finding new approaches and fresh solutions to the challenges facing BC’s teen parents are the ambitious goals for this year’s teen parent conference starting in Vancouver this Friday.

The annual BC Alliance for Young Parents conference, hosted by the BC Council for Families, brings together young parent educators, child care staff, advocates and academics from around the province. Among the speakers addressing this year’s conference are:
•    Maurine Karagianis, MLA Esquimalt-Royal Roads, Opposition Critic for Children and Family Development
•    Micheal Vonn, Policy Director, BC Civil Liberties Association
•    Dr. Steve Mathias, Inner City Youth Mental Health Program, Covenant House

“This conference is an great opportunity to open discussion about the growing range of social issues facing young parents.  What are the social supports that can help them to accomplish their school goals, and to build an independent future?  These are some of the questions we’ll be exploring.” said Jennifer Dales, the conference organizer and Director of Programs at the BC Council for Families.

The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Young Families Moving Forward,’ putting the focus on building a healthy future for teen parents and their children.

"If we want our young teen parents to have the opportunity to successfully accomplish their educational goals and to build independent lives for themselves and their families, we need to start meaningfully addressing the many challenges they face,” said Jennifer Dales, adding “The numbers of teen parents in BC aren’t growing from year to year, but their challenges are multiplying while funding to support these families is shrinking. “

For further information:  Marilee Peters, marileep@bccf.ca (604) 678-8884.

Background
There are more than 1400 reasons to care about teen parents.  

Every year in BC, more than 1400 babies are born to mothers less than 19 years old.  Without a high school diploma, these mothers and their children are doomed to a life of poverty and instability. Yet programs that assist teen parent families are few and far between in this province.  In BC today there are only 34 recognized young parent programs providing education, counseling, community referrals, and childcare for our province’s struggling teenagers and their children.

The BC Council for Families, through the BC Alliance for Young Parents, brings the dedicated professionals who work with young parents and their children together, to share their experiences and challenges, exchange ideas, learn from new research and develop best practices.

The BC Council for Families is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that is a leader in family life education, committed to strengthening families and family-serving professionals in BC. We provide research and resources on family issues, including our practical, affordably priced publications on diverse family topics. Our award-winning parenting programs include Nobody’s Perfect Parenting, My Tween and Me, and Parent-Child Mother Goose.