A. Rose - Letter to Provincial Government

Honourable Mary Polak, Minister November 10, 2009
Ministry of Children & Family Development
PO Box 9057 Stn Prov Govt
Victoria BC V8W 9E2
Minister.MCF@gov.bc.ca

Dear Minister Polak

I am writing about the decision to close the Provincial Office of the IDP. I want you to know what a difference this office has played in the life of my foster child.

This child was born into a disadvantaged family and was developmentally delayed in ¬¬¬ language skills and social-emotional skills so the IDP consultant began working with us.

I was able to help this child to make progress in language help and social-emotional skills. I got new ideas every visit from our IDP consultant. The ideas for how to play with and decide on types of toys for this child fit into my daily routine and so could be practices many times a day. These ideas are part of a program called AEPS that takes skills and breaks them down into tiny steps that the baby can be successful at. It was the Provincial Office of IDP that brings professors to UBC for summer institutes; one year the course was about the program I just mentioned. My foster child could not have made the progress he did without the help of those programs…without the IDP Provincial Office.

I hope that you see from what I have shared with you that the Provincial Office of IDP was directly responsible for the positive changes I have seen in my foster child. He would not have had a chance to be all that he could be without the knowledge and skills of our IDP consultant…who learned those skills because the IDP Provincial Office brought new and valuable programs and information into the province of B.C.

Please re-consider your decision to cut this office.

Sincerely,

Angela Ross

CC:
Premier Gordon Campbell
Lesley Du Toit, Deputy Minister
Maurine Karagianis, Opposition MCFD critic
Carole James, Leader of Official Opposition
Harry Lali, MLA