Region receives funds for early childhood development

By Chris Jones/The Oshawa Express

The federal government has given the region funding in the hopes it will help to educate at-risk youth.

The $277,625 in funding comes from the federal government’s Social Development Partnerships Program.

It will go towards “Rebuilding a Village,” a regional program aimed at creating approaches to “inclusive” early learning and child care environments.

Rebuilding a Village is one of seven projects selected by the federal government in the Greater Toronto Area. The program will assist educators in teaching at-risk youth around the region.

“It’s a project that, from community consultation, we’ve learned is necessary to support inclusion for children with at-risk behaviours,” said Lisa McIntosh, director of children’s services for Durham Region.

She further explains the hope is for the project to allow the region to establish foundational research, and build tools and strategies which can be used to support inclusion for the at-risk youth.

“This financial commitment ensures that Durham families continue to have access to high-quality child care,” said regional chair John Henry in a press release. “The early years of a child’s life are critical to their overall development and future success.”

After the federal government asked municipalities to find ‘new and innovative’ ways to improve early childhood learning and child care in spring 2018, the region partnered with Fairy Glen Day Care Centre in Whitby.

In July, after being reviewed by Employment and Social Development Canada, the region’s Children’s Services Division received word they would be receiving the funding.

It will go towards the development of a simulated environment to help educators working with at-risk youth.

At the most recent regional council meeting, staff received approval to use the funds. The deadline to use the money is March 31, 2020.

The funding will be used to fund staff wages, project costs, and capital assets.

“It’ll be bringing in equipment that we can use for simulation programs so that educators can learn, and build their capacity in a safe environment, and then take that back into their programs and their classrooms,” says McIntosh.

Additional in-kind contributions are estimated at $143,358, and are already in the approved operating budget.

These funds will go towards space for meetings and workstations, simulation rooms, administrative staff support, and coordination of communications and training sessions.

To Stella Danos-Papaconstantinou, the region’s commissioner of social services, the project was chosen because of its unique approach.

“It’s an area of research that really hasn’t been looked at in depth, and both in publicly- funded school systems and in our child care systems, we’re seeing that there is a greater need to be able to support children who are exhibiting at-risk behaviours,” she explains.

Some of these behaviours include aggressive tendencies, or “a social, emotional need that needs to be developed.”