Helping to Support Families in the Mid-Island for over 30 years.
NIC has been strengthening the community by helping people to achieve their maximum potential through the provision of quality supports and services that meet identified needs for over 30 years. This commitment is carried out in a variety of settings and through a wide range of services where our roles can include direct practice, supervision, administration, teaching, training, consultation, and advocacy.
Our Core Principles
Relationship Based
Our Philosophy arrived after many years of front line service and extensive studies through research and interviews. Almost all of the research and certainly interview information made it clear that in order to impact a family with service, they must participate from the beginning. For this to be successful, a relationship must be developed.
Family Driven
Our work with families is much more successful if we are supporting the family or child in moving in a direction that they have, at minimum, had a hand in choosing. These are often broad based goals (ie Get my child home, help them listen to me) but they provide a common focus for our work with the family. It also demonstrates that the family is actually the MOST important participant in the process of change.
Honest and Respectful Communication
This requires training and practice. To truly be honest and respectful is a difficult skill set. We, as service providers, are very concerned about the feelings that are involved in our work. it is a true skill to be able to be honest in a way that doesn’t minimize the information and doesn’t traumatize the recipient. It requires a relationship that allows for us to learn the language of a family so we can be more accurate with our words, both written and verbal.
Our Programs
Stages
Stages is a program centered around increasing access for families whose children are currently not in their care. Parents progress through various stages and complete tasks personalized to their needs.
Family Support
The family support program is a 4-6 week goal-oriented program aimed at supporting parents in overcoming a current “road block” which is causing the family stress. The program is voluntary, and so we do with, not for, as we aim to support parents by learning alongside them and providing them with tools to support their family.
Intensive Family Support
IFSS provides a three month intensive involvement with a family that is significantly at risk of having a member (or members) removed, or a family that is having members newly returned to their care.
Supported Access Program
Supported Access Program, or SAP, is for parents whose children are in care. The primary goal of this program is to provide a happy, safe, and healthy environment for parents to spend time with their children.
OCS
This program offers support to caregivers with out of care agreements (EFP, 54.01, 41.1(b) agreements). Assists caregivers in finding strategies and tools to aid in behaviours, paperwork, school, challenges, boundaries with biological parents.
It is a true skill to be able to be honest in a way that doesn’t minimize the information and doesn’t traumatize the recipient. It requires a relationship that allows for us to learn the language of a family so we can be more accurate with our words, both written and verbal.