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Building a Community Architecture for Early Childhood Learning and Care. Name of your organization and town/city go here. SESSION ONE. Getting to Know Ourselves. What’s happening to us? What’s affecting our lives? Who are we? Who’s not here? How did we get here?. An overview. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Building a Community Architecture for Early Childhood Learning and Care
Name of your organizationand town/city go here
SESSION ONE
Getting to Know Ourselves
What’s happening to us?What’s affecting our lives?Who are we? Who’s not
here?How did we get here?
An overview
An overview of ourproject &
Early ChildhoodLearning & Care
What we hope to accomplish
Design a service model of early learning and child care that is community-responsive while supporting Canada-wide goals
Build awareness Develop a consensus on moving
forward
Why now?
There are sources of federal funding for ECLC: The Early Childhood Development Initiative
provides $500-million annually. The Multi-lateral Agreement on Early Learning
and Child Care provides $350-million annually The federal/provincial/territorial child care
agreements provide $1-billion annually until March 2007.
CAP-C and CNCP programs with provincial agreement. Aboriginal Head Start and on-reserve child care
programs.
Canada-wide goals
Sound child development strategies promote:
•Healthy populations
•Social inclusion
•Life-long learning
Canada-wide goals
Deconstruct the Guiding Principles
Accessible Comprehensive High Quality Inclusive Affordable Publicly funded Responsive to the
community Accountable
Research Support for Principles
Child Development International Comparisons Social justice/social inclusion/population
health Demographics Economic Analysis
Action Research
Our project is based upon a collaborative approach to investigation that provides people with the “means to take systematic action to resolve specific problems”.
Action Research cont’d
We will work through consensual and participatory procedures that help the people in this room and other community members investigate our own problems and issues, capture our stories,
We are inspired to develop community-crafted plans, that identify the needs of families and then to respond to the problems and barriers to integrated systems of early childhood learning and care.
The process
Look Gather relevant data Build a picture-define and describe
Think Explore and analyze: what is happening here? Interpret and explain: How/why are things as
they are?
Act Plan (report) Implement Evaluate
Work of the taskforce
Over the next few sessions:
1. An overview of the project and early learning and child care
2. An environmental scan and assessment of services in our community
3. Develop a comprehensive service model
4. Review of the blue print
What we will produce
A blueprint for policy makers and communityactivists that answers: How a system of early learning and child
care would look to children, parents and communities.
How existing community resources can be organized to serve as a strong foundation for new investments.
What are the components of a comprehensive, integrated system of quality early childhood learning and care?
The blueprint
The Blueprint will answer how services can be
organized to: Provide children with quality early learning
opportunities at the same time as parents are supported to work/study and parent effectively
Be accountable to governments and communities
Make efficient use of public resources Improve outcomes for children, families and
communities
The Blueprint cont’d
The Blueprint will also answer:
What outcomes for children, families and communities do we expect from public investments in early learning and child care?
What barriers impede the development of integrated services and how can we overcome them?
What do we mean by Early Childhood Learning and Care?
YWCA Canada uses this definition : An early childhood learning and care
program supports the healthy development of all young children
At the same time as it: Supports parents to work, study and
care for other family members Supports parents in their parenting role Supports women’s equality
Service fragmentation
Kindergarten
Child care
Special needs
Parent/ child drop-in
Pre/post natal
Nursery
school
Where to begin?
Head start
Family resource/info centre
?
?
??
The barriers
For children: services are not consistent and
quality variesFor parents: either not available, not the right
kind or too expensiveFor providers: fragile funding, difficulties finding
and keeping staffFor communities: rising demand for more expensive
intervention programs
Integrated services
• Quality early learning and care environments for children that parents access on a full time, part time or occasional basis.
• Children attend on their own or with their parents, allowing stable relationships with staff and peers.
• Readily accessible information & referral to specialized services.
How others do it: Québec
Ministry of the Family regulates and funds children’s centres for children 0-4 years.
These centres provide parent information and support; plus group and family based educational care on full, part time and occasional basis.
Parents pay one low fee. Ministry of Education provides before and after
school programs for children 5-12 years right in the schools the children attend.
How others do it: Finland
“Educare’ concept combines education and care into a single service. Formal school begins at 7.
Central Ministry funds regional government to provide service to children 0-6. All children entitled to attend. Affordable user fees.
Neighbourhood hub model
Kindergarten
Child care
Special needs
Parent/child drop-in
Pre/post natal
Nursery School
Head start
Family resource/
infocentre
How others do it: Toronto First Duty
Kindergarten, child care and family support services combine into a single program for children 0-5
All space and resources are shared Integrated curriculum draws on the content
and practice of the three streams Kindergarten teachers, ECEs, parenting
workers and teaching assistants plan and deliver the program as a team with reciprocal recognition of credentials
Quality early learning and care
National and international studies concur, quality services depend on:
Strong staff training and fair working conditions
Regulations that support quality and are enforceable
Universal access Adequate, stable funding
Closing Conversation
What did you do today? What surprised you? Pleased you?
Challenged you? What insights did you gain today? How will you use this information? How
will you share this with others?
We Can Do It!
We teach children that things go better when people work together.
Our lessons will help make the communities of the future a better place to live.
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