The coordinator of a program in Steinbach that works with at-risk kids got a very special surprise this past weekend during festivities for Rogers Hometown Hockey. Brenda Brown says they were blessed to get a cheque for $15,000 from the Ted Rogers Community Foundation.

"It was such a pleasant surprise. Headway will be using it for our client support costs. So, what that looks like is, for example, if a youth needs to get a job and needs steel-toed boots and they have no other way of paying for them, then we can provide that for them and things like that. The funding will also be going towards parental support costs. We have resources for parents such as books and DVDs and whatnot. We'll definitely be beefing that up."

Brown adds some of the money will also go towards a parenting course for families of at-risk teens, something that just got underway about four weeks ago and that they hope to offer once or twice a year. She says it is yet another support for these youth.

"One of the things that our facilitator of our course has said is that a lot of us (parents) have tools but we forget what they are there or we don't quite know how to use them. Just being able to help parents know that they have these tools or to help sharpen them or give them new ones, certainly. The homework that we are given each week is, go home and catch your child doing something good instead of, often, the opposite."

Brown adds surprise grants like this are such a bonus in being able to help them make the Headway program better.