The Parent Support Network, in conjunction with the Children’s Secretariat, is launching a series of kits for parents of young children. These will be loaned out free of charge across the province, and the distribution is enhanced with the participation of the PEI Public Library Service. The kits, which provide information and play activities, will be available at various sites the week of February 15-19.

“This initiative is not only a helpful resource tool for parents but it also provides positive learning opportunities for children,” said Minister of Tourism and Culture Robert Vessey. “The Department is pleased to provide support to assist with the development of the Parent Kit. Our intent is to make it available to as many Islanders as possible.”

The types of items in the kits include toys, books, information books, booklets on community resources, ideas on age-appropriate activities, and tools for being a healthy and effective parent. They will be available for loan at Family Resource Centres across the province, family services centres, and branches of the public library service.

“Those of us who work with parents every day are excited about being able to offer these packages,” says Laura Quinn Graham, Chair of the Parent Support Network. “There is one kit for parents of children from birth to 18 months, another for children 18 months to five years, and a third on work-life balance for the parents themselves.”

There are so many things to learn from, and ways to play with, a young child. There are three separate kits, and the Birth to 18 Months Parent Kit includes a CD on teaching limits, a booklet on brain development, three children’s books, information on other community resources, and a toy with an activity guide.

The kit for preschool children from 18 months to five years of age includes the same variety of aids, geared towards the older child, with their own developmental needs. Every parent wants to help their child meet their potential, and we know how important the early years are. Children learn in so many ways, and this kit offers so much variety.

The third kit, according to Laura, is designed to help the parents themselves, as they struggle with the demands of tody’s busy lifestyle. There are several resources on healthy lifestyle, work-life balance and community resources. All three kits contain close to thirty items.

For more information contact, please contact Laura at (902) 436-1348.

via www.gov.pe.ca

The P.E.I. government has launched a newspaper ad campaign urging Islanders, who have family and friends working out West, to try to convince them to move back home.

The ad reads: "It's about time to get your family back home … join the movement to bring Islanders home."

Minister of Innovation and Advanced Learning Alan Campbell, who has four siblings who have left the province, said it's an issue he's "keenly interested in.

"So you know, we're targeting former Islanders and trying to collect information around skill sets and that type of thing that we may be able to tap into as a workforce down the road through Innovation PEI and perhaps have some former Islanders return home."

A pilot program is already underway in western P.E.I., gathering information about people who are from the area, but are working in Alberta, and what skills they have, said Campbell.

He'd eventually like to see such an inventory done right across the province, he said.

A recent survey by the Residential Construction Sector Council found that nearly half of the 100 tradespeople questioned, who are working out West, plan to move back to P.E.I. within three years.

The workers cited low wages, a shortage of full-time work, and little or no benefits as being among the reasons they left the Island.

via www.cbc.ca