Members
of the Coalition are engaged in providing a broad range of services
including pre- and post-natal care, adult retraining, family literacy,
public school, crisis intervention, nutrition education, and community
development. The unique advantage that the Coalition provides
is a vision of A Web of Best Practices, a distributed approach
to a southeast Interlake early childhood development program.
Progress
to Date
The Southeast Interlake Early Childhood Development Coalition
began meeting formally on September 17, 2001. In the fall of ‘01,
a proposal entitled “The Web of Best Practices” was
submitted, and on January 24, 2002 we received approval for partial
funding. In February 2002, the Coalition submitted the second
Web of Best Practices, and again partial funding was granted.
Immediately following each approval, projects got underway. To
date, the components that have been at least partially undertaken
as a result of funding approval are:
- Baby Talk, Rhyme Time
- a family literacy/nutrition program.
- On the Go: Community
Kitchen – a community kitchen project
- Parent, Child & Mother
Goose – a family literacy project.
- First Steps to Success
– a parenting workshop program.
- Materials That Matter
– lending libraries of educational books and toys.
- Mentors for Moms –
a capacity-building program for women.
- Facilitating Participation
– transportation and childcare for needy participants
- Developing Capable People
– a parenting workshop program.
- Open Communications –
building a web site and informational brochures.
These components were supported
as a result of the group’s collaborative decision-making
approaches. All members of the Coalition are committed to the
goals of the Web of Best Practices, and have continued to meet
regularly in order to ensure that the best decisions and actions
are taken.
Program Goals
The
mission of the Coalition is to assess community needs in early
childhood development, learn from and expand on exemplary practices
currently in place, and to do so in a process that builds capacity
and sustainability. Through their discussions, the Coalition has
formulated a vision of a parent-child centre that can be characterized
as a web of exemplary practices. This distributed approach is
intended to be facilitative of current best practices, to have
multiple access points and locations as a major structural component,
and to endorse a collaborative mechanism for action- and decision-making.
In addition, membership in the Coalition has recognized the need
for leadership development, and as such has promoted participation
in provincial and/or regional committees and workshops.
The overarching goals
of The Web are fourfold:
- To improve the skill
and commitment to parenting among parent and primary care givers
of children aged 0 to 5 years.
- To enhance the nutritional
knowledge and practices of parents and primary caregivers of
children, those not yet born to 5 years of age.
- To increase opportunities
for and accessibility of adult literacy and family literacy,
particularly for those families with children under 6 years
of age.
- To use methods by which
individuals, institutions, and parents develop a voice, a sense
of efficacy, and a commitment to the continuous improvement
of the community in which children spend the critical first
five years.
Partners
Our network of partners includes:
- The Lord Selkirk School
Division
- Aboriginal Headstart
- The City of Selkirk
- Selkirk Nursery School
- Public Health
- Hand In Hand Day Care
- Growing Years Family Resource
Centre Inc.
- SFC Day Care
- Selkirk & St. Andrews
Regional Library
- Baby First
- Selkirk Friendship Centre
- Selkirk Rotary Club
- Nova House, Inc.
- Rotary District 5550 Literacy
Initiative
- Business & Professional
Women of Selkirk
- Bookmates
- Interlake Literacy Partners
- Selkirk Family Literacy
- Selkirk Food Bank
- Selkirk Legion
- Inclusion Network
- Selkirk & District
RCMP
- Options for Youth
- Ministerial Association
- Ruth Hooker School
- Selkirk & District
Learning Centre
