It wasn’t easy for Donald Cameron to ask for help.
Last year, the single father, now 22, was landscaping and worried how he’d provide for his son, Dallas, who is two. Cutting grass in Maple Ridge just wasn’t cutting it.
“I’m very much a ‘find a way to make it work, don’t receive handouts’ type of guy,” Cameron said. “It took a lot of conversations with other people and realizing this wasn’t just my pride on the line. It was my son’s well-being on the line that made me do it.”
Following the advice of a WorkBC case manager, Cameron applied to take part in the provincial government’s Single Parent Employment Initiative, which launched last fall.
The five-year, $24.5-million program offers up to one year of funded training or paid work experience for single parents, who continue to receive income or disability assistance while in training. Child-care costs are covered during training or work placement and during the first year of employment, along with transit costs to and from school.
Cameron recently graduated from the University of the Fraser Valley’s electronics-technician common-core program. It was nerve-wracking returning to school, he said. He’d gotten used to spending every day with little Dallas and suddenly found himself dropping his boy off at daycare, while he spent the day in classrooms and labs learning a new trade.
But Cameron did what needed to be done. His mom and Dallas’ mom have been helping out, but he wanted to achieve independence and better pay. Income assistance has been barely enough to get by, he said.
“I was really struggling financially,” he said. “I had some family help to help with Dallas, but especially with the price of everything today, it’s not that good.”
Cameron said SPEI has been an “awesome” program. He believes every single parent’s situation is different but many could benefit from the opportunity SPEI provides.
More than 2,800 single parents on income and disability assistance are participating in SPEI and more than 290 have already found jobs, according to the provincial government. Ninety per cent of participants are single mothers, but there are about 270 single fathers, too.
About 50 parents join the program each week and 16,000 single parents are eligible.
While Cameron searches for a job, he’s struggled without daycare coverage, but he’s hoping to get to work quick. He plans to further his education and hopes someday to find a career in telecommunications involving fiberoptic and wireless technology.
But Sunday, he’ll take a break from the job hunt to spend Father’s Day with his son. And they’ll probably do what they’ve always done, running around outdoors or hiking or playing with trucks and trains.
