41 ~ Sunday, October 2, 19§ ay Shore News

Immateriat
girl says
farewell

PAGE 42

WEEK FOCUSES ON CHANGiWG NEEDS

Celebrate the fa

THE LOVE and commitment family members have for
each other hasn’t changed over the years — but everything
else has. National Family Week, Oct. 3 to 9, celebrates to-
day’s family, trying to survive in a rapidly changing society.

“In spirit, the extended family is
helping out. But today, families
are dispersed around the country:
There are extra demands on the
members, Many grandmothers are
still in the workforce,’’ notes
Arlene Gladstone, executive direc-

tor of North Shore Family Ser-~

vices.

Carol Matusicky, executive
director of the B.C. Council for
the Family, says that an-
thropologist Margaret Mead sum-
med up the major problem facing
families: ‘“We now expert an indi-
vidual family to accomplish,
unaided, what it used to take a
whole clan to do.’’

In 1986, a comparison of
single-parent families to dual-
parent families ‘was 1,620 to 3,210
for North Vancouver City, 2,095
to 10,805 for North Vancouver
District and 890 to 9,385 for West
Vancouver District.

This indicates a slight rise of
single-parent families since 1981,
when the figures were 1,280 to
3,080 for North Vancouver City,
1,885 to 10,610 for North Van-
couver District and 855 to 4,900 in
West Vancouver.

“I would estimate that about 90
per cent of single-parent families
are headed by women, and that 60
per cent of these are low income,’’
says Gladstone.

tn 1986, 56 per cent of all wives
were working (for wages), as op-
posed to a mere 3.5 per cent in

BRIO-MEC

WORKSHOP SERIES

‘kinds of family structures,

By MAUREEN CURTIS
Contributing Writer
1931. And of those married

women in the work force, some 70
per cent of them are in the child-

_ rearing ages of 20 to 44,

Some 37 per cent of a family’s
costs are going to day care. Affor-
dable day care (ie. government
subsidized) is something that fami-
ly services is lobbying for on a na-
tional level.

North Shore Family Services
served about 10,000 people, 6,000
of whom received some sort of
counselling.

“We're trying to support all
*” says
Gladstone.

Their single-parent support
group that meets Friday evenings
at Queen Mary School is a lifeline
for the growing numbers of lone
mothers and fathers.

**A parent might wait all week
until Friday to tell someone that
her child has a new tooth,’’ relates
Gladstone.

A special course is offered for
the step-family, to help ‘‘blended”’
families, which are also on the in-
crease. One in four marriages ends
in divorce, but many participants
remarry soon after.

‘It’s like. a corporate merger.

These people have different sets of
policies and procedures. Put them
together and there often is a period

BRITISH COLUMBIA'S
FIRST EVER

NEWS photo Terry Peters

RACHEL PRIME (foreground) and her Grade 3 and 4 classmates from Larson Elementary school work on
drawings of their families as part of their studies for Family Week. .

of disharmony and adjustment,’’
says Gladstone.

Many other services are offered
by North Shore Family Services,
See Family
Page 43

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