Single Parent Resource Centre of Victoria

Moms and Mentors program

“We have the most incredible spirit here,” says Liz Bloomfield, Executive Director of the Single Parents Resource Centre of Victoria (SPRC), while enthusiastically describing her highly educated and skilled staff that facilitates the myriad of programs aimed at assisting single parents - of both genders - move forward with their lives.

This year the SPRC will be celebrating 30 years of vital work in the Victoria community. In addition to offering integrated six week courses in life skills and other educational needs for single parents, the organization also offers practical assistance by way of individual counseling, school supplies, clothing, food and other basic essentials single parents may need or simply cannot immediately afford.

One of the programs funded in part by the Victoria Foundation is Moms and Mentors, a highly successful initiative that places female volunteers from the community together with isolated single moms. These women have at least one child under the age of six and literally no support network in place. The program is facilitated by Ann Tasko who amongst other critical duties related to the program plays “matchmaker” in finding the most suitable pairing of mom and mentor. This matching is based on a number of criteria including practical considerations that make it possible for both mentor and mom has access to each other. Another key consideration is that the matches meet the needs of both the mom and the mentor.

The supportive relationship between mom and mentor allows moms to devise strategies that provide tangible help and guidance required to attain the goals that the moms have chosen for themselves. As a means of maintaining continuity, mentors are required to commit to the program for a minimum of one year.

It’s not always structured interaction and sometimes it’s an activity as simple as a walk on the beach or a chat over coffee to work the knots out of a problem that a single mom would normally be tackling on her own in isolation, devoid of any support or encouragement.

“Basically the Victoria Foundation came to the rescue,” says Tasko, who has her Master’s in Counseling Psychology. Tasko goes on to explain how a grant from the Victoria Foundation contributes to a professional facilitator’s salary, rental of the Blanshard Community Centre and kitchen for monthly meetings with meals included, supervised daycare by professional childcare workers during the meetings and bi-monthly meetings with mentors at their SPRC facility on Gorge Road.

A testament to the success of Moms and Mentors is their ongoing stream of interested volunteers through volunteer services in Victoria, exposure through the local media and simple word of mouth. In fact, the orientation manual for the Moms and Mentors program devised by Tasko has been shared with similar organizations in both Canada and the United States. “We received the grant in a timely fashion, and it’s important for this program to continue,” added Bloomfield saying that the Moms and Mentors program reduces the social and economic isolation of single parents in the community and helps them cope with the many challenges they face. I think Ann summed it up neatly when she said, “The program helps moms become better moms.”