The City Council, during last Monday’s regular session, approved on first reading a proposed ordinance mandating the construction of ten family life resource centers as unit offices of the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) in strategic locations in the city and appropriating the necessary funds for the said purpose.
Local legislators stated that the proposed family life resource centers shall be located in City Camp, Kayang, Bayan Park, Pacdal, Asin, Bakakeng, Loakan, Camp 7, Irisan and Quirino Hill.
The council tasked the City Planning and Development Office and the City Buildings and Architecture Office (CBAO) to be the partners of the City Social Welfare and Development Office in the construction of the proposed family life resource centers with the planning office in charge of locating the sites for these for approval, while the CBAO will be in charge of designing the structures, provide the costing of the projects, the timeline for the construction and other responsibilities that accompany the implementation of the same.
The council stipulated that the family resource centers shall have counseling rooms, tutorial rooms, vocational rooms, conference or meeting rooms, administrative offices and comfort or rest rooms.
Among the basic services to be provided by the said centers include counseling to married couples with problems in their relationship and those who desire to strengthen the same; parenting courses; values formation; health care or nutrition; tutorial; family life activities; Philippine culture and ecology.
The council claimed that the funds to be appropriated by the city government shall depend on the assessment of the CBAO and shall be sourced from available funds that may be tapped either from the city or national sources.
Under the proposed ordinance, the family life resource centers are to be neighborhood-based multi-service facilities that provide a range of enabling services intended to help enhance family life, functions as readily available facility for families and individuals to cope with their lives, and its service delivered by social welfare and development workers, and by trained volunteers.
According to the ordinance, the family is the quintessential unit for the personal growth and development of individuals and provides the basic needs of socialization when they are young and it is where they get care, protection, and emotional support for their proper growth into adulthood, and where they learn to take up roles and responsibilities for their future families.
The council noted that undue stress brought about by rapid social and economic changes has affected the family structure and its solidarity, evidenced by an increase in generation gaps in cases of violence in the family and with the country striving to recover from various problems of under development, massive poverty, malnutrition, unemployment, underemployment, illiteracy, the breakdown of core values and the pandemic among others, families need enabling services to strengthen its members to face their day to day problems and pressures and ensure them a humane and decent way of life. By Dexter A. See