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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 8:30 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.

To
register or for more information, please e-mail
caringcoasttocoast@gmail.com. Space is limited.  You can also learn more at our Caring Coast to Coast Facebook Page.

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. Space is limited.  You can also learn more at our Caring Coast to Coast Facebook Page.

Most people in B.C. don’t know high numbers of children are entering school doomed to fail, a new poll says.

But once people are aware of the problem, they support big government spending to fix it.

The poll — commissioned by the YWCA Vancouver and released Wednesday — was based on the findings of a study that shows 29 per cent of children in B.C. enter kindergarten “developmentally vulnerable” with low test scores in a number of important skills.

In Vancouver, the “developmentally vulnerable” figure is 37 per cent.

Experts link this vulnerability to lack of childcare spaces, and increasing time and cost pressures for dual-income parents struggling to balance work and family life.

Vulnerable children are more likely to suffer poor health, fall into crime, fail in school, and underperform in the economy, the study by U.B.C. professor Paul Kershaw, concludes.

In Kershaw’s study, commissioned by the B.C. Business Council, researchers tracked over 140,000 children in B.C. for a decade. Vulnerability figures climbed during the study period, Kershaw said.

YWCA Vancouver CEO Janet Austin said the new poll of 800 respondents from across B.C., half men and women, shows 70 per cent underestimated the number of children who are developmentally vulnerable.

But high numbers supported measures to help children and families, with 89 per cent supporting more affordable childcare spaces, and 83 per cent in favour of financial support for low income families. Almost 60 per cent supported extending parental leave to 18 months from one year.

Most surprisingly, Austin said, 60 per cent support additional government spending of $1 billion or more per year to reduce child vulnerability.

“This is a remarkable number,” Austin said. “What’s new in this poll is we’ve asked specific questions about cost.”

Kershaw’s number crunching conclusion is, if the province invests $3 billion per year in early learning and family support, child vulnerability numbers can be cut drastically, which will reduce future social costs, and drive the economy with healthier, better workers.

Vancity CEO Tamara Vrooman said business leaders are starting to buy the idea that investing in early learning is the key to future prosperity for B.C.

Vrooman, Kershaw and Austin acknowledge in the current fiscal reality it’s a tough sell to draw tax dollars to fund early learning.

But Kershaw says his investment plan is a better stimulus package for economic growth than any other in the world. And the cost of not acting is too high to contemplate, he says.

“The vast majority of the B.C. population is still in the dark about a massive social problem,” he said. “There’s already a canary in the coal mine.”

Vrooman said, “we are already taking a cost increase decision by not taking action [on child vulnerability.] We can choose to ignore it but it will increase our costs and lower productivity.”

via www.theprovince.com