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.