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Family & Community Support Services (FCSS)

Small Acts campaign


Visit the Small Acts campaign web pages to learn more about how you can make an important difference in your children's lives.


What is FCSS?

FCSS is a partnership between local municipal governments and the provincial Children & Youth Services Ministry. The partnership provides provincial funding that is matched with local tax dollars on an 80/20 share basis. The funding is then used to support and develop locally driven preventive social services initiatives.

The FCSS Act requires social initiatives to be preventive. The social well-being of individuals and families must be enhanced through promotion or intervention strategies provided at the earliest opportunity. The initiatives must also do one or more of the following:

  1. Help people to develop independence, strengthen coping skills and become more resistant to crisis;
  2. Help people to develop awareness of social needs;
  3. Help people to develop interpersonal and group skills which enhance constructive relationships among people;
  4. Help people and communities to assume responsibility for decisions and actions which affect them;
  5. Provide supports that help sustain people as active participants in the community.

Services that FCSS must not fund:

  • Services that provide primarily for the recreational needs or leisure time pursuits of individuals,
  • Services that offer direct assistance, including money, food, clothing or shelter, to sustain an individual or family,
  • Services that are rehabilitative in nature (as that is in conflict with “prevention”), or
  • Services that duplicate services that are ordinarily provided by a government or government agency.

FCSS in Red Deer and Central Alberta

FCSS is represented locally by the Red Deer and District FCSS Board, which was founded in 1968 and operated under its current structure since 1974.

FCSS provides funding to non-profit agencies, school boards and partner municipalities to deliver social services, supports or programs that meet the criteria of the FCSS Act.

View the FCSS brochure here.

The Red Deer and District FCSS Board is a partnership between municipalities. The board is made up of representatives from

The City of Red Deer Council Members (2)
Red Deer County Council Members (2)
Town of Bowden
Village of Delburne
Village of Elnora
Town of Penhold
Members of the public (4)