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I first found out about Better Beginnings maybe three years ago. They helped with a lot of things. I have been in this neighbourhood for about 11 years, and there was nothing before Better Beginnings. I had six kids, two of them don't live here anymore but the four other ones do. They've helped with clothing, getting food, and with different resources. Before Better Beginnings it was really boring. They didn't have much of a park. I had six kids and not much help to get them counselling or to get them clothes because all that time I couldn't afford to buy them clothes. They helped with food, like Better Beginnings gets bread donations.

I got a Family Visitor. I’ve had her for about a year now. She has helped quite a bit too with my health, because I have a lot of problems. She’s helped by giving me rides to the doctor’s and coming with me, and she encouraged me to go and have my radiation. I confide in her, there are things I can't say to others that I can say to her. She’s now my babysitter. That’s one good thing out of meeting her too, she babysits for me after work hours.

At Better Beginnings, I’ve been taking the kids to Playgroup and going to the Women’s Group which is a group for abused women. The Parenting group at Better Beginnings on Mondays has also helped me. I was having problems with getting the kids to bed and staying in bed, you know getting the kids to listen. They gave me a lot of booklets, to help me understand it. I went to their drop-in, where the Nurse {Better Beginnings Community Nurse} helped me with personal stuff. All of them there know me! And last year my daughter didn't want to go to school, this year she goes, like she just didn't want to go and they helped me to get her a job in the community. She wasn't having her schooling but she was getting some experience. So she enjoyed it and after that she got babysitting jobs just because the women knew her. She also got connected to that youth program in the summer, where they go out and work.

There have been some changes in the community. People aren't getting away with things, like if they see kids getting abused, Better Beginnings will make sure that the right people are contacted. Or if they’re not being fed, there is more help, with them being there. Before nobody really cared, they never did anything, so that’s a change. Better Beginnings also brought a better place to play. It was a tire with chains and now we have a nice built-up park with structures to play on. It didn't change our teens very much, though. They’re just out there doing the same things they have always done since they were knee-high to a grasshopper.

Having people to talk to, especially the Community Nurse, has been helpful. I think very highly of them. They’re very nice people, all of them. When my son has nothing to do, the Playgroup Coordinator will bring him into the Playgroup. And you have to have a parent there, but if she sees him, she’ll bring him in because he has nothing to do. They have toys there we don't have here, more things that are educational for them.

Another thing is that Better Beginnings helped my son get into the Head Start program at the Heatherington Nursery School. They pushed to get him in there. I would have never thought of putting my son in Heatherington Nursery School myself. I would have just kept him at home, so with their help, getting him into a daycare instead of him being here bored, that’s a change and it gives me time for myself.

Another thing is on Fridays, every second Friday over at the Playgroup, you can get two hours respite {care} they call it, so you can put the kids over there and if you have to go to the doctor or something, wherever you want to go and you want to get some time off they do that for you. In general, I have a better outlook on life. Their help, their support, the bread donations that are given over there, that helps me, the clothing helps me, the nurse helps me, it all helps me in all the ways to have a better life.