Bureaucracy kills haven for children
by Danna Johnson

The Pitt Meadows After-School Club sputtered to an end, despite the hard work and dedication of volunteer teachers and parents.

The Fraser Health Authority informed club organizers that in order to keep going they'd either need to get a licence or change their mandate entirely.

The health authority said the club was acting as a daycare and needed to be licenced as such.

The club operated for three years as a haven for the children who needed it the most. Not only were they able to get homework help from retired teachers, they were able to play games and be involved in discussion around bullying, said the club's founder Lois Hammond.

Once Fraser Health got involved, however, the club had to change from being "well rounded" to having a single theme - homework.

And, to top it off, the children had to be accompanied by a parent. While some parents were able to participate, the club was no longer able to attract "the people that desperately needed it."

Hammond said the children of single, working parents needed the services "more than anybody else."

But thanks to the new requirements, they were cut off.

In its prime, as many as a dozen children could be spotted getting assistance at the club. By the end of the last school year, those numbers had dipped to as few as four, Hammond said.

"It was meant to be a well-rounded club with sports and activities and a community focus along with homework help.

"It wasn't meant to be just a homework club. It was meant to be really fun."

When the "ministry interfered," Hammond said, "the club lost some of its sparkle."

The volunteers were drawn to the program because of the lack of government interference and bureaucracy, she said. To become licenced, she said, would add layers of complications to the carefree club.

"For the teachers who just retired it was going back into a bureaucracy that they had had enough of," Hammond said.

To be licenced, she explained, would mean spending more time doing paperwork and other administrative duties and less time helping the children. The group, she said, hasn't disbanded, but has taken a hiatus, with the hopes that the rules will eventually be relaxed.

Maple Ridge-Mission MLA Randy Hawes said he tried to have the rules relaxed, but has so far been stonewalled.

"I am continuing to ask that we intervene and that the Fraser Health Authority remove licencing requirements for programs like that," he said. "It doesn't make sense calling a program like that child care. It was an educational program for kids."

Hawes called Fraser Health's reaction "totally stupid."

"Somebody is trying to build an empire here and it's at the expense of the kids."

Hammond said that while working with the children was rewarding, the experience of dealing with the bureaucracy has been "discouraging."

"Sometimes by trying to keep the bad guys out, you keep the good guys out as well."

published on 10/31/2006