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StrongStart facilitator invites Bella Coola area parents, caregivers to drop-in

The program is housed at Nusatsum Elementary School
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Bella Coola StrongStart facilitator Corissa McNeilly of Bella Coola was in Williams Lake recently. (Monica Lamb-Yorski photo - Williams Lake Tribune)

It has been five years since Corissa McNeilly was hired as the StrongStart facilitator in the Bella Coola Valley.

Housed at Nusatsum Elementary School in Hagensborg since 2017, the program started as Success by Six 12 years ago.

It is open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to noon as a drop-in centre for children and a caregiver to stay, play and socialize.

“Everybody is welcome,” she said.

Unlike some programs during COVID, StrongStart continued as it was deemed an essential service.

McNeilly said there were some protocols in place and because the numbers are usually smaller it was manageable.

“I do know some other StrongStarts had to limit numbers and have time slots.”

Winter months tend to be busier because young families want to get out of the house, but she encourages others to consider accessing the free program.

“We have access to the playground at the school, and the gym, and the school backs onto a forest so we can wander outside if it is a nice day.”

A mom of two young children herself, she attended StrongStart after the first one was born.

She took her daughter to StrongStart in Bella Coola and three locations in Salmon Arm and said she had an idea of how a few different ones were run.

At the Bella Coola program they do circle time, songs and stories, free play and craft projects,

“With Mother’s Day coming up we have been doing crafts geared towards that,” she said.

Sometimes they will do a collaborative craft project, she added.

There is limited funding for supplies, and most of it goes to purchasing coffee and snacks for the children, dish soap, etc.

“I have not been able to purchase any big climbing apparatus or play equipment yet. I rely on donations here and there.”

StrongStart follows the same calendar as the schools.

READ MORE: Nuxalk Apcwakm – Uplifting ceremony planned for Bella Coola end of May 2023



monica.lamb-yorski@wltribune.com

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Monica Lamb-Yorski

About the Author: Monica Lamb-Yorski

A B.C. gal, I was born in Alert Bay, raised in Nelson, graduated from the University of Winnipeg, and wrote my first-ever article for the Prince Rupert Daily News.
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