It Takes A Village To Raise A Child: Thanks To West Side Family Place, We Have Exactly That

Overview of West Side Family Place:

West Side Family Place (WSFP)was established in 1973 by two local mothers, Ellen LeFevre and Mary Lynn Burke (West Side Family Place, 2023). This was one of the first recognized family resources programs across Canada (personal interview with Dr. Alexander) that was born as a result of these two visionary mothers identifying a need in their community that was not being met. Understanding how challenging being a new parent could be, especially for those without access to the necessary resources, they created this non-profit organization to try to provide support to those who need it during this stressful period. This is reflected in the organization’s main goal, which is to help families in the local community and to create a sense of connection within the community (West Side Family Place, 2023). Over the years, they have adapted to the evolving needs of their targeted demographics allowing them to maintain their core essence with which they began with (personal interview with Dr. Alexander). This ability to adjust to change throughout the years has allowed them to keep providing help for families in their local community, even after facing challenges themselves. 

After listening to an interview with a representative of West Side Family Place, we got a deeper understanding of their values and philosophy, what they do in this organization, and an overview of some of the issues they have encountered within all of these years of providing services. WSFP’s actual mission statement is “Empowering families to raise happy, healthy children and to not feel alone” (personal interview with Dr. Alexander). This endorses their philosophy of offering a judgement-free, safe environment where they guide and assist parents to facilitate the best outcomes for their children. Another important point touched upon in the interview, was the reiteration of their belief that “all parents want to do the best by their children and they are the experts on their own children” (personal interview with Dr. Alexander). This allows us to see how WSFP does not intend to overstep or infringe on the autonomy of parents, as this may have negative consequences on both the parents as well as the children, going against their core values and mission. The representative of WSPS reinforces that they just “walk along parents” (personal interview with Dr. Alexander) but never intend to replace them as this process is theirs. This philosophy/value then influences what they offer. Now, let’s take a closer look at how the support offered by WSFP reflects its values and mission statement. 

Through a curriculum-based approach, West Side Family Place provides support to both parts of a parent-child relationship, the caregivers/parents and the child. This is achieved by offering “programs and services that promote child development, early learning and literacy as well as positive social interactions for families” (personal interview with Dr. Alexander) and also, family support for the parents or caregivers, as well as “information about services in the community” (personal interview with Dr. Alexander). Some of these necessary resources to which they connect parents with include, but are not exclusive to: local organizations that provide food support when the family is struggling with food insecurity, counselling services or group support for those parents experiencing mental health challenges, child care referrals, housing support, etc. All together, these efforts allow parental figures to come join into a safe environment where they can share experiences of parenthood while children learn through playing (personal interview with Dr. Alexander). 

 But like any other organization, WSFP has encountered issues along its long path of helping families. The following will cover information on these issues and our suggestions on how they could employ a theoretically based solution to diminish the negative consequences that these might have led to. 

Issue 1: 

As discussed in the interview, one of the main issues that West Side Family Place (WSFP) is facing revolves around the pressure from some levels of government to consolidate their services – which is a common trend for small organizations (personal interview with Dr. Alexander). The hub-model proposal, likely influenced by a desire for economic efficiency and resource optimization, suggests a move towards streamlining services under one roof. 

However, using the Family Stress theory, it becomes evident that this challenge faced by WSFP impacts various key people in different ways. Firstly, it affects the organization itself. If WSFP is required to adopt the hub-model proposal, there would likely be a fundamental shift in its organizational focus – though the onset would be gradual, this displays a transition that acts as a major stressor (A). Their emphasis on community relationships and tailored support would be compromised, affecting their core identity. Also, the organization would need to adapt its existing programs, services, and staff roles to fit the new model. This could lead to challenges in retraining staff, potential resistance to change, and a period of adjustment that might disrupt the organization’s smooth functioning. Along with acting as a stressor, these specific challenges with staff also represent a depletion of the organization’s once-established resources (B), encompassing not only the tangible aspects but also the accumulated knowledge, expertise, and institutional memory that may be impacted during this period. Additionally, an issue like this is extremely susceptible to ‘stressor pile up’ within the organization. For example, if individual members of WSFP’s staff perceive the stressor as unmanageable (C), this could lead to high staff turnover. Another resource (B) that could be affected through this process is the organization’s relationship with its investors. As the hub model indicates better economic efficiency, resistance to this change could create conflict between WSFP’s owners and their stakeholders.

The potential changes have far-reaching implications for the local families as well. If there are changes in the types of services offered or how they are delivered, families, too, might face gaps in the resources (B) they rely on, creating a huge stressor (A). This would be especially overwhelming for families with new babies, as they are very vulnerable during this time. Moreover, given that this stressor is external to the family, it introduces a sense of unpredictability and lack of control, possibly heightening the perceived difficulty of the transition (C). Lastly, families might seek alternative sources of social support if they believe that WSFP can no longer offer tailored care. This shift could instigate a secondary transition within the family’s dynamic, requiring adaptation by both parents and children as they engage with new individuals in unfamiliar environments. Consequently, this secondary transition has the potential to act as an additional stressor, arising in response to the initial one.

Family Stress theory offers valuable insights into the dynamics of stressors, coping resources, and adaptation, helping to articulate the strains imposed on WSFP’s organizational structure and the potential disruption in coping resources for both the organization and families relying on its services. It is particularly useful due to its capacity for recognizing real-world psychosocial dynamics. The emphasis on psychosocial dynamics is pivotal in acknowledging the subjective experiences of individuals and organizations. By focusing on how people interpret and respond to stressors and available resources, Family Stress Theory facilitates the development of strategies that address both the objective challenges and the subjective experiences of everyone involved. This dual perspective allows for the creation of solutions that are not only theoretically sound but also grounded in the lived realities of the people being affected. This perspective ensures that individuals involved, whether within the organization or the community, feel heard and understood. 

However, Family Stress Theory primarily concentrates on internal factors within families and organizations. Thus, it might not adequately account for external factors such as government policies, economic trends, or larger social issues that play a significant role in shaping the proposed changes. In the case of WSFP, the proposed consolidation of services is not solely a result of internal organizational dynamics or family interactions. Rather, external factors, particularly government policies advocating for economic efficiency and resource optimization, could play a pivotal role in shaping the direction WSFP is urged to take. Another external factor is the economic landscape of the specific country (in this case, Canada). The economic landscape can impact funding, resource availability, and the overall financial viability of the organization, aspects that go far beyond the immediate interpersonal dynamics within the organization. Therefore, Family Stress Theory does not inherently encompass the broader socio-environmental factors that contribute to external pressures influencing organizations like WSFP. The theory, by design, overlooks the systemic and environmental forces that play a pivotal role in shaping the challenges faced by WSFP. However, a theory that considers such factors in detail is Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory.

Issue 2:

Alongside issues posed by government pressure, West Side Family Place also experiences issues stemming from the impact of COVID-19 (personal interview with Dr. Alexander), which simultaneously influences local new parents. The ecological system framework examines individuals’ development within various interacting system levels: immediate environment (microsystem), interactions between microsystem (mesosystem), indirectly influencing external environment (exosystem), larger societal influences (macrosystem), and the impact of time and historical context (chronosystem) (Smith & Hamon, 2021). From an Ecological theory perspective, as people are social and dependent on others, altering the interaction within one’s system nevertheless raises issues for new parents WSFP wants to support. As a global pandemic, COVID-19 serves as a significant historical event, causing drastic short and long-term changes within the WSFP and local new families. From a broad perspective, shifts in public perception regarding non-profits such as WSFP evolve as the pandemic unfolds, recognizing its essentiality in the community. Examining from an exosystem level, WSFP suffers from negative financial consequences as economic instability influences fundraising and funding prospects, leading to a reduction in the financial budget for running these services (personal interview with Dr. Alexander). Exosystem level implementation of COVID-19 policies, for instance lockdown and social distancing, impacted WSFP’s delivery of services, disrupting regular in-person operations to virtual operations. Furthering the impact of these COVID policies, parents are limited in their access to community services, as most of them are unavailable (personal interview with Dr. Alexander). This lack of community support not only deprives new parents of their usual social network at the microsystem level but also lowers their overall well-being. Simultaneously, for WSFP, parental challenges from COVID-19 led to an increased demand for their services. At the mesosystem level, for local families, limitations in interactions with others due to distance can amplify their vulnerability and need for social support. In the context of new parents, associating the significant stress and challenges with being a new parent and the lack of community support ultimately leads to a decline in family relationship satisfaction. Ultimately, these issues negatively impact parents as they perceive a heightened feeling of isolation and disengagement to fulfil societal and parental norms, potentially hindering child development and disrupting family dynamics at both mesosystem and microsystem levels. In turn, for adaptation within the WSFP, staff and the organization face disruption as they shift to remote delivery (personal interview with Dr. Alexander). Given its small team and the need to upgrade technologies, this transition poses communication and resource challenges for the WSFP, particularly as it wants to sustain a sense of community engagement (personal interview with Dr. Alexander). At the microsystem level, WSFP team members face issues such as adapting to these remote technologies, hence experiencing burnout rates and difficulty with work-life balance within the mesosystem. Ultimately, these issues negatively impact new parents as they perceive a heightened feeling of isolation and disengagement to fulfil societal and parental norms, potentially hindering child development and disrupting family dynamics. These changes across the ecological systems simultaneously transform individual families’ perspectives while also reconstructing WSFP’s perception of societal attitudes at a macrosystem level, prioritizing interconnectedness and social support.

Applying the ecological system perspectives allows policymakers, local families, and non-profit organizations such as WSFP to navigate the issues arising from COVID-19 at each system level. By providing a multilevel analysis, ecological system theory allows for an extended understanding of individuals’ interaction with WSFP and the larger society. It illustrated how factors at different levels, for example, COVID-19 at the chronosystem level and government policy at the exosystem level, can interact with each other, formulating issues for individuals and their microsystems. Moreover, enhancing a developmental context, allows for a capture of the issue from both local and global perspectives, allowing individuals to examine the dynamic of the issue across historical transitions. This multilevel system ultimately fosters practical application for various parties, individual families and WSFP, serving as a guide for analyzing the complex interaction between individuals’ development and the environment.  

Yet, the theory can be overly simplified as the system levels focus on a broad framework, lacking distinct boundaries for each level. This significant overlap between each system level can often be blurred together, thus hindering its clarity and coherence of connection for individuals when categorizing their issues into specific levels in real-life situations with complex, influential factors. For future potential research, integrating an interdisciplinary theoretical approach can enrich the foundation for addressing complex issues between WSFP, local families, and COVID-19, providing practical implications for the development of support systems. Specifically, incorporating theories like social exchange theory can allow for further examination into the dynamics of reciprocity in social relationships and the different system levels.

Solutions: 

One solution to address the government pressures, as analyzed by Family Stress Theory, requires us to look at the stressors and find resources to help the issue or find ways to enhance their perspective. One of those resources is funding, which can be used to spread awareness or to train the new staff if they incorporate the new hub model. 

As mentioned earlier, the organization would need to adapt in order to fit the new model and inadvertently introduce potential challenges, such as resistance to the change on behalf of employees and users, and disruption to the organization’s functioning. Funding would not only alleviate this by allowing for comprehensive staff training programs, making the transition to this new model smoother, but the staff would also become equipped with the new skills required to adapt to the hub model, all while retaining the core values of the program. Moreover, WSFP can extend support to its staff during this period of change by implementing programs focused on their well-being. This initiative could involve counselling services, stress management workshops, and recognition programs aimed at acknowledging the crucial role played by its staff. By providing these supportive measures, with their new funding, WSFP would be showing that their staff members are valuable resources. Thus, it not only empowers the staff to navigate the changes more effectively but also contributes to a smoother transition process for the entire organization. 

Although it may be stressful at first, service providers must try to maintain and highlight WSFP’s unique service values in order to ensure that WSFP are still able to help the community. WSFP can even allocate their funds strategically, ensuring potential gaps in service that may arise during the transition phase are limited. One way this can be achieved would be through making sure that essential services for families, especially those with vulnerable members like newborns, remain uninterrupted. Additionally, catering to changes in participation and involvement around key stakeholders, including staff and families, in the decision-making process related to adopting the hub model is pivotal. This active engagement dismisses feelings of powerlessness, providing stakeholders with a sense of control over the transition. As well as helping with perception, this will encourage open dialogue and feedback mechanisms to address any further concerns and gather insights on the diverse impacts of the changes, especially on stakeholders. Strengthening community engagement with families by actively seeking feedback, understanding their needs, and involving them in decision-making, reinforces relationships and improves the perception of the stressor, which is an important aspect of family stress theory. Overall, these approaches aim to mitigate the stressors and facilitate a smoother transition for WSFP and the community they serve by using resources and improving people’s perception of the stressor.

Another solution, in an attempt to resolve the intricacies behind the issues concerning COVID-19 and WSFP, is to address the several levels of the societal framework as defined by the Ecological Systems Theory. 

Microsystem Level: Impact on new parents

At the microsystem level, the pandemic has disrupted the usual support networks of WSFP for new parents. The product of general CDC guidelines and widespread fear, restricted access to community services had diminished social connections, contributing to a steep decline in parental well-being and family relationship satisfaction; heightened isolation has also hindered child development, highlighting the importance of microsystem dynamics. WSFP could implement online parenting classes and virtual support groups in which parents can seek help and comfort. These interventions aim to mitigate feelings of isolation, enhance parental well-being, and foster family relationship satisfaction.

Mesosystem Level: Interactions/support for local families

Anxiety associated with the pandemic, in addition to the need to socially distance, has fostered stress and cultivated various challenges associated with parenting. This, coupled with a lack of community support, has created a milieu of family dissatisfaction and vulnerability. Therefore, aspects of the mesosystem are crucial in understanding the interconnectedness of individual experiences within the community. In attempting to alleviate these challenges, WSFP could facilitate virtual community events and initiate collaborations with local businesses and schools to enhance the availability of these resources. This creates a more supportive environment for families, inviting families into a safe space to connect with the community. In doing so, WSFP can strive to ensure that families can stay connected within a community that fosters support and shared experiences

Exosystem Level: Financial consequences

The implementation of COVID-19 policies, such as lockdowns and social distancing, has necessitated a shift from in-person to virtual operations. This has greatly reduced service deliverability. Additionally, WSFP has faced burdens with finances and policy, such as disruptions to fundraising and outreach events. To counteract this, WSFP can implement a more efficient and targeted fundraising approach, including targeted campaigns, grant applications, and partnerships with businesses and government to help mitigate financial strains. Taking a more diversified funding approach can enhance the organization’s resilience in the face of post-pandemic economic instability.

Macrosystem Level: Public perception

The pandemic has acted as a catalyst at the macrosystem level, transforming the public’s perception of non-profits like WSFP; recognition of WSFP’s essential role in the community has certainly become more pronounced as societal attitudes evolve throughout the pandemic. From the isolation and disconnect resulting from the pandemic, the community had noticed the void in services that WSFP once filled. WSFP should leverage these changing public perceptions to strengthen their role in the community. Public awareness campaigns, media partnerships, and advocacy efforts can highlight the essential services provided by WSFP, cultivating increased support and resources from the broader community.

References 

Alexander, A., & West Side Family Place. (2023). Personal Interview with Dr. Alexander. Retrieved from audio1252567768-4.m4a

Julia Childs Heyl, M. (2022, December 7). What is family stress theory?. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-family-stress-theory-6831762#:~:text=Family%20stress%20theory%20states%20that,needs%20cannot%20always%20be%20controlled.

Kendra Cherry, Mse. (2023, August 17). A comprehensive guide to the bronfenbrenner ecological model. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/bronfenbrenner-ecological-model-7643403#:~:text=The%20theory%20suggests%20that%20a,%2C%20societal%2C%20and%20cultural%20factors.

Smith, S.R., & Hamon, R.R. (2021). Exploring Family Theories (5th ed.). Oxford University Press.

West Side Family Place. (2023). Our Story. https://www.westsidefamilyplace.com/aboutus/ourstory/