It’s an investment opportunity like no other. A chance to secure a brighter economic future by investing in tomorrow’s community leaders, today.
It’s called Early Childhood Development (ECD), and rather than measuring the return on investment in dollars and cents, Charlie Coffey, a director with the Council for Early Child Development, calls it a return on society.
At a Wednesday breakfast meeting at Best Western Vernon Lodge, Coffey, a retired executive for government affairs and business development for RBC, spoke to local community leaders about the importance of investing in ECD.
The first six years of a child’s development are crucial for lifelong learning, health and behaviour. More specifically, these formative years are where children develop cognition, language, motor skills, adaptive skills and social-emotional functioning.
Using recent research, Coffey explained the potential benefits of supporting ECD, and the pitfalls of choosing to ignore it. Citing a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, he explained how a $1 investment in high-quality early childhood learning can yield a $17 return down the road.
“If we don’t get it right in the early years, there’s a huge cost later on… incarceration, dropouts, special education, intervention programs, those sorts of things,” said Coffey, who also spoke in Salmon Arm on his Okanagan visit.
“If you want an idea of what your economy will look like in 15 years, take a look at what you’re investing in ECD today.”
An advocate in this field for more than 15 years, Coffey says Canada has dropped the ball in its support of early child development programs.
In a review of 14 OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries, Canada, investing just 0.25 per cent of its GDP, ranked last in terms of spending on early childhood education and care. By comparison, Denmark topped the chart at 2 per cent, eight times more than Canada.
In UNICEF’s Report Card on early child education and care in the world’s 25 affluent most nations, Canada was last again.
“When I read that, I was a bit angry. Why are we allowing this to happen?” asked Coffey. “There should be more significant change than what we are seeing in this province and country.”
On a provincial level, things aren’t much better. Research conducted by the University of British Columbia’s Human Early Learning Partnership shows that 29 per cent of children entering kindergarten don’t meet the developmental benchmarks needed to thrive in the classroom.
The study also indicates children coming from low economic backgrounds are most at risk, but the majority of vulnerable children in B.C. come from middle-class backgrounds.
To counteract this, the B.C. government is implementing its 15 by 15 policy, which aims to ensure 85 percent of all children entering kindergarten in 2015 will be ready to learn.
Coffey says the solution isn’t all that difficult. It’s just a matter of getting people on the same page.
“This is not complex. (We need) to show support for the people who are dealing with the community’s most precious resource, the children… getting different people at the same table.
“It might be uncomfortable for an ECD educator to meet with the chamber of commerce people. If you get the right environment, you can get the community focus together and talk about developing a vision.”
Lynne Reside, coordinator of the North Okanagan Early Childhood Development Coalition, says her organization is an ideal platform to get community leaders together. The range of attendees at Coffey’s speech was proof of that, as representatives from the school district, Interior Health, childcare agencies, the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce and the City of Vernon were all there.
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Join us for Caring Coast to Coast on May 6, 2010 @ Confed Centre of the Arts
A new project, focused on supporting employees who juggle work and caregiving responsibilities, launches on May 6, 2010 in Charlottetown. The project entitled, “Winning Strategies to Support Caregivers in the Workplace”, will be announced at the project’s first event, “Caring Coast to Coast”. The event will be held at Confederation Centre of the Arts in Studio 1 from 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. and will be opened by Verna Bruce, Past Associate Deputy Minister of Veteran Affairs Canada and recipient of the 2008 PEI Lieutenant Governor's Award for Excellence in Public Administration. The half day session will be held in an “open space” format allowing opportunities for participants to engage in open dialogue about the realities of managing the issues related to work and caregiving.
Last month, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hosted the White House Forum on Workplace Flexibility . Using the perspective of not only supporting employees who have caregiving responsibilities outside of work but one of economic necessity, our neighbours to the south have placed a national priority around creating more flexibility within workplaces. John Berry, Director of Personnel Management for the federal government, said, “Flexibility is the new email. There are those employers that have it, and there are those that will.” The time has come to understand and address the realities of employees who are stressed and overloaded. The Canadian Caregiver Coalition estimates that 4-5 million Canadians struggle to balance work and caregiving for a family member who is in need of support because of age, disabling medical condition, chronic injury, long term illness or disability. “Winning Strategies to Support Caregivers in the Workplace” will view these issues through both an economic and humanitarian lens. When employees and employers work together to resolve work and life issues, there are significant improvements to customer satisfaction, employee engagement and the bottom line.
Project Coordinator, Jane Boyd, couldn’t be more pleased with the team she has put in place for this project. She states that, “Collectively, our team has over 50 years of experience related to work life issues traversing across family, childcare, eldercare, health and human resources.” Boyd has been actively involved in the early learning field and family related policy on the Island since 2007. She is particularly pleased to have Rob Paterson, a leading advisor on social networks and on how human culture operates, serving as a project advisor. Based in PEI, his work flows between organizational design, research and the web 2.0 world. Paterson is pleased to be involved in this innovative project. He says, “The stage is set to utilize social networks and technology in gaining a national perspective around the issues and solutions for Canadian’s juggling work and caregiving responsibilities.” Paterson goes on to state, “Our hope is that we engage the hearts and minds of employers and employees as we venture on this journey of discovery. This journey will encompass the value of social media, collaborative stories and action.” In addition, the project's research partner, University of Guelph’s Centre for Families Work and Wellbeing, will be pivotal in ensuring that the discoveries are solid and useful in creating a less stressful experience for Canadian’s who provide care while employed. The Centre for Families Work and Wellbeing has already conducted extensive research in this area. In addition, they are very familiar with international best practice around this issue.
Members of the Project Team Include:
Jane Boyd – Project Co-ordinator
Dr. Carol Matusicky – Engagement Co-ordinator
Wendy Creelman – Marketing Co-ordinator
Robert Paterson – Social Media Advisor
Funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Social Development Partnerships Program, this three year project will aim to support employers in becoming best practice employers around the dual roles faced by many Canadian’s. By engaging employers, employees and service providers, the hope is that the resulting conversation will create innovative workplace supports, tools and resources that will assist employees who face the dual role of work and caring for their children, elders and other family members.
To
register or for more information, please e-mail
caringcoasttocoast@gmail.com by May 3, 2010. Space is limited. You can also learn more at our Caring Coast to Coast Facebook Page.
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