Emergency Social Services

Family Services and Consumer Affairs provides emergency social services to support the local authority's response teams.

There are regional offices located throughout the province. The regions are: Winnipeg, Central, Interlake, Parkland, Westman, Eastman and Northern.

Staff assigned to assist a local authority may be: social workers, Employment and Income Assistance Counsellors, Child Care Coordinators, Behaviour Specialists, Finance Officers or administrative support.

Services Supported

Family Services and Consumer Affairs supports the following services:

• Registration and inquiry services
  • Consists of the registration of evacuees
  • Provides assistance to reunite families
  • Responds to inquiries
• Emergency food services
  • Provides food or meals to those persons without food or food preparation facilities
  • Food should be culturally appropriate and sensitive to the dietary needs of the evacuees
• Emergency clothing services
  • Provides clothing or emergency covering to help preserve health and modesty until regular sources of supply are available
  • Diapers are the most commonly provided clothing item
• Emergency shelter services
  • Arranges for safe, immediate, temporary lodging for evacuees
  • Accommodation may be congregate facilities, private arrangements, or hotel/motels
• Emergency personal services
  • Provides information on the immediate emergency help available
  • Arranges for temporary care of unattended children and dependent adults
  • Provides counselling to people with personal problems and needs created or aggravated by the emergency
• Reception centre services
  • Provides staff support to one-stop facilities that are capable of providing:
    • registration and inquiry
    • food services
    • accommodation
    • lodging
    • personal services
• Coordination of emergency social services in reception centres
• Liaison officers and/or on-site response personnel to advise/assist local authorities

How to Obtain Emergency Social Services

During emergencies, requests for Emergency Social Services can be made by contacting your local authority (Mayor, Reeve etc.)