Mères avec pouvoir

Supporting single-parent women during the pandemic

In the mid-1990s, a research group at the Centre jeunesse de Montréal – Institut universitaire turned its attention to the situation of young single-parent women with children aged five and under. The researchers found that job placement programs for these women were, in general, a failure. These young mothers, when coming out of socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, too often found themselves in living in precariousness or experiencing social exclusion. That took its toll on the women, their children, and their immediate families. Poverty, and exclusion from the job market, often translated into psychological distress, social isolation and loss of identity for these mothers.

Mères avec pouvoir, a non-profit organization, has as its mission the promotion of autonomy and social and professional integration for women who head up single-parent families with modest incomes, and that include children ranging from newborns to five years of age. The organization seeks to help them grow and progress with temporary social housing (for three to five years), community and one-one support, and a spot in a childcare centre (CPE) for their children.

In applying for support from the COVID-19 Collective Fund at the Foundation of Greater Montréal, which FGM launched at the start of the pandemic along with several philanthropic partners, Mères avec pouvoir submitted a proposal for a project aiming to enhance the depth and quality of the support it offers. In particular it sought to extend its intervenors’ working hours, with a view to preventing problems linked to alcohol and drug abuse, neglect, mental health issues or violence.

Valérie Larouche, Executive Director of Mères avec pouvoir, says the organization will support nearly 200 women over the next 10 years in areas of their lives such as housing, a return to school or to the job market, and give them a hand with parenting.

“I am feeling stronger now. Being here gives me a sense of security. When I’m here I feel a sense of trust, and I am lucky to have you as my intervenor.” Sylviane