Province tabs $2.65M for EIA programs

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This article was published 05/04/2022 (1437 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — As part of a promise to “transform” the way Employment and Income Assistance is distributed in Manitoba, investments in projects totalling $2.65 million were announced Tuesday by the province.

As children pressed their faces against the glass wall of the daycare room of the Taking Charge adult learning centre behind her, Families Minister Rochelle Squires said the province would be providing the centre $850,000 to create programming help single-parent clients get back into the workforce.

The province will also be extending the single-parent employment program at Opportunities for Employment (which provides employment assistance to single parents unable to access child care) for another two years, at the cost of $1.3 million.

“Our goal in a transformation of the Employment and Income Assistance program is to ensure that every client can be guided on a clear path toward greater independence and more fulfilling lives,” Squires said.

The program initially began as a pilot project between Taking Charge and faith-based not-for-profit Opportunities for Employment. Parents in the program enrol at Taking Charge for an eight-week personal development class while their child receives daycare. Afterwards, the parent will receive up to eight weeks of employment readiness training.

The funding announced Tuesday will support 200 single parents.

“[They] often feel overwhelmed at the prospect of securing child care and may be nervous about entering the workforce and the potential impact to their finances, their housing arrangements and their decreased availability to tend to the needs of their children,” Opportunities for Employment director of programming Colleen Penner said.

“Having programming that’s designed to address potential barriers and resolve ambivalence is a key component to fostering successful transitions into the labour market.”

Three smaller funding announcements were also made for programs focusing on employment assistance in rural Manitoba — the first of their kind in Thompson and Brandon, Squires said.

Employment agency Career Connections Inc. in Brandon will receive $214,500, and the YMCA and FireSpirit Inc. in Thompson will receive $150,000 and $142,600, respectively.

The Sun contacted Career Connections Tuesday afternoon. However, the organization was unavailable for comment before press time.

This funding is welcome news for Jaimi Berry, 26, who began attending Taking Charge’s “Paving the Way” program, which prepares adult learners who are completing high school courses, in November. Her two-year-old daughter uses the daycare service while Berry works to get an education.

“Whenever she has an issue, [Taking Charge] are the first ones I go to,” she said. “They’re very warm. They’re like friends and family.”

She has been using EIA for the last two years, and said many mothers she has become friends with at the centre are in the same situation: struggling at times to make ends meet, get an education and find safe child care simultaneously.

Berry hopes to get into accounting at Red River College Polytechnic and become a payroll administrator.

“I’m so excited to see where my future goes from here.”

On Tuesday, Squires also announced the province would be entering a new three-year agreement with the Denturist Association of Manitoba, set to expire in March 2024. EIA provides basic denturist services to clients.

The new agreement would see fees for denturist services increase by six per cent in 2022 and three per cent in 2023.

» Winnipeg Free Press, with files from Kyle Darbyson