Megan Allen is the founder of Okanagan Single Parents, a social group for single parents and their children.
Erin Christie photo
Megan Allen knows what a difference a good group can make in the life of a single parent. She remembers discovering such a group through the online social networking portal Meetup.com, shortly after her separating from her husband. Allen, who lived in Vancouver then, was six months pregnant with her second child at the time.
“There’s something really helpful about sharing a common experience,” said Allen, who relocated to the South Okanagan with her children two years ago. The 39 year-old teacher and former chemical engineer currently resides in Oliver.
“It’s nice to have other people who are going through the same thing because it can be a little bit harder at times.”
Allen said her experience with the Vancouver group inspired her to start a local chapter through the same social networking site earlier this year.
Currently the six members and their children meet once a month for planned activities that have included skating, bowling, barbecues and outdoor music events. Allen says the group, called Okanagan Single Parents, is planning a trip to Kangaroo Creek Farm in Kelowna next month.
She is hoping to get more local parents involved and expand the group but wants to be clear about its mandate.
“This group is for single parents and their children who are active and like to participate in activities,” she explained.
“This isn’t a group where you’ll be bombarded with questions about the failure of your relationship or where anyone’s going to assume there’s something wrong with you because you’re a single parent. It’s an activities group. There is a support element in that it’s beneficial to meet other people who also know what it’s like to have a kid who is sick for 21 days straight and have nobody else on deck,” she noted.
“If you connect with someone in the group and you feel open enough to talk about your personal situation, that’s great. It’s really up to the individuals. But the point is to go out and do fun, affordable things.”
Okanagan Single Parents is listed on Meetup.com as a Kelowna group but Allen says the group is intended for parents in Osoyoos, Oliver, Okanagan Falls, Kaleden, Peachland, Summerland or Kelowna, and the group tries to book activities in different locations to accommodate everyone. South Okanagan Single Parents is free to join.
For more information visit www.meetup.com/Okanagan-Single-Parents or contact Megan Allen at [email protected]
Erin Christie
Oliver Chronicle
