BC Council for Families

by Marilee Peters
Director of Communications

I didn't get what I was hoping for this Mother's Day: a plane ticket to Norway.

by Marilee Peters
Director of Communications, BC Council for Families

A new study out of UBC suggests that the key to keeping kids in school is whether or not parents value education. Although previous studies on youth school dropout rates have suggested that teens are more likely to leave school if their parents had been dropouts, a study by UBC economists Giovanni Gallipoli, David Green and Kelly Foley shows that the family trait that matters most is not parental education, but how much parents value education.

by Marilee Peters
Director of Communications, BC Council for Families

Brand new premier-designate Christy Clark won the support of the BC Liberal Party on Sunday with a policy platform of Families First. The Families First Agenda for Change revolves around four key policy approaches: job creation, empowering people through more open and transparent government, modernizing our approach to healthy families (by increasing tax credits for family caregivers and for parents with children in sports and art programs), and building safe communities (through investments in policing, the criminal justice system, and in community mental health).

by Marilee Peters
Director of Communications, BC Council for Families

In a report released last week by BC's Representative for Children and Youth reviewing the tragic deaths of 21 BC infants between 2007 and 2009, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond calls for "concrete and effective prevention measures ... to make a difference in the lives of infants, children and families in this province."