In A Good Way
(Brandon)

In A Good Way is located in Brandon. The project is sponsored by the Brandon Friendship Centre (BFC), which provides a range of services and programs to the Aboriginal community in the Brandon area.

In A Good Way focuses on providing supports and services to Aboriginal children age 0-6 and their families in the Brandon area, which has experienced high pregnancy rates among Aboriginal adolescents. In A Good Way was developed and opened in 1994 by BFC primarily to address the gap in services for young parents. Its programs address parenting issues, reproductive health, self-empowerment, self-care (including addictions issues) and family recreation. Participants play an important role in the development of programs and services.

The experience of the project over its first few years led to an expansion of focus to include older parents. The expansion was necessitated because many of the adolescent parents continued to have babies past age 17, and because many of the parents were not ready to work actively on their personal development until they were older (in general, 20 to 21 years).

The most important feature of In A Good Way's service approach is the integration of CAPC programming with a Canadian Prenatal Nutrition Program and an Aboriginal Head Start program, all sponsored by BFC. The three programs together can offer supports to children from the prenatal stage until entry into school. Accessibility is another important feature of the IAGW approach; transportation and childcare are provided for all IAGW programs.