Why a Grandparents Day Stroll?
In BC there are more than 11,000 children being raised full time by their grandparents (or other relatives). Their stories are varied, but many of the threads are the same: loss, isolation, grief, hardship, love and determination.
Grandparents Raising Grandchildren (GRGs) face complicated bureaucracies – legal, financial, and governmental – that are difficult (and often expensive) to navigate. Poverty is a serious risk since they receive little to no financia...
Why a Grandparents Day Stroll?
In BC there are more than 11,000 children being raised full time by their grandparents (or other relatives). Their stories are varied, but many of the threads are the same: loss, isolation, grief, hardship, love and determination.
Grandparents Raising Grandchildren (GRGs) face complicated bureaucracies – legal, financial, and governmental – that are difficult (and often expensive) to navigate. Poverty is a serious risk since they receive little to no financial support, and often they spend what savings they might have on fighting for and supporting their grandkids. They lose friends, and seniors’ programming, and housing rarely meets the needs of GRG families.
The grandchildren are their priority and these children need and deserve, love, stability, and all the support possible to ensure they thrive.
What is happening?
On Grandparent's Day, Sunday, September 11, Parent Support Services (PSS) Society of BC will be recognizing these caregivers across British Columbia. Our Annual Grandparents Day Strolls will be fun, lively, family events to celebrate all grandparents and to raise funds to support the work we do with grandparent-led families and our parenting programs across BC.
In Victoria, the Grandparents Day Stroll will be a free, fun-filled, treasure-hunt style event starting at the Maritime Museum of British Columbia (MMBC). Participants will be given a treasure map and a free bag for collecting prize items from the ten different stations outlined on the treasure map. After strollers complete the treasure hunt, they can head back to MMBC to spin the wheel, enter into a draw for a basket donated by Butchart Gardens, and sign a petition to give kinship caregivers adequate provincial funds, services, and recognition.
