HUMBOLDT — The Humboldt Early Years Family Resource Centre is currently looking at a March opening.
“There has to be a grand opening so we’re planning that for early March,” said Kevin Garinger, the Horizon School Division’s director of education. “We’re pretty excited about getting that program going for Humboldt and area.”
Original plans would have seen the Humboldt centre open in October after $215,000 in funding was announced by the province in April 2021 to go toward the startup of the facility.
It will be located at 1605 Glenn Hall Drive, the former location of the Humboldt Journal office and Humboldt Bridge Ministry International. Garinger said the program was intended to be held in a facility on Ninth Street, but space constraints made that impractical, causing some of the delays.
By the time approval had been obtained by the city to move forward on the new location, Garinger said it was already December. In addition, he said they’ve been challenged by supply chains and renovations, which have only recently been completed.
“Supplies are in high demand and challenging to get in a timely fashion. So we’re working as quickly as we can to get those in place. We may be starting even without some of these supplies in place, unfortunately.”
Early Years Family Resource Centres offer a range of drop-in and scheduled programming for families with young children up to five years of age.
These include activities for babies and toddlers, access to information, professionals, as well as support groups where parents can share their experiences with others and seek advice.
Community members who are seeking more information are encouraged to visit the website on heyfrc.ca.
“There’s probably going to be a number of people who want to access the program, so we’re going to have to keep the numbers small to begin with and then we’ll expand as we go,” Garinger said.
