First steps towards solutions

Reaching families living

Relationships built on trust

Barriers on families' pathways
First steps towards solutions

Early childhood development partners have been actively supporting Québec families living in underprivileged circumstances for many years.

In an effort to rein in social inequality, they have tried out innovative approaches. In the process, they learned some lessons that have enabled them to make a bigger difference in their work with families.

Alain Poirier, medical officer at the INSPQ, discusses social inequality. (In French only)

Tools for rethinking our practices

The battle against poverty is hard work and a long-term process. However, if all stakeholders work together, they can enhance their strategies and approaches and pave the way for positive outcomes.

What are the options that are available to intervention workers, managers and partners engaged in a collaborative project, an organization or a government ministry to help break down the barriers that hold back children’s and families’ progress in life?

Below are some available tools that are particularly useful to help improve practices and enhance the quality of services.

The Constellation

Proposed by Horizon 0-5

The Constellation approach is intended for organizations that wish to reflect as a team on how to improve their practices so they can effectively engage with and respond to the needs of hard-to-reach, isolated families.

Objectives :

Establish a common understanding of the territory’s hard-to-reach, isolated families
Gain a better idea of the needs and obstacles these families face
Examine the organization’s practices
Adapt their practices in small or more substantial ways

Advantages :

Enhanced understanding of families’ situations and needs

Reflexive process for examining existing attitudes and practices
Common team-based vision and shared values to help make the various family guidance practices more compatible with one another
Management of the team adapted to the realities of intervention workers and families
Revamped services in accordance with families’ needs

SUPPLEMENTARY DOCUMENTS

Parent-intervention worker dialogue

Proposed by the Centre d'études interdisciplinaire sur le développement de l'enfant et de la famille (CEDEIF)

The principal goal of the Parent-Intervention worker dialogue workshop is to exchange the ideas and perspectives that intervention workers and parents have of each other’s realities.

Objectives :

Allow parents and intervention workers to come together in a group setting to discuss their experiences and raise issues connected to the parent-intervention worker relationship
Reach out and open up to the other side and voice the inherent issues and how these affect everyday realities, while safe in the knowledge that the other side will respond to the information supplied
Elaborate a collective response to the message received from the other in order to convey what is of primary importance for each of the two sides

Advantages :

Nurtures closer links between parents and intervention workers
Raises parents’ awareness of intervention workers’ and organizations’ realities
Improved organizational management in accordance with families’ realities

SUPPLEMENTARY DOCUMENTS

Dialogue parents-intervenants, under the Perspectives parents topic on agirtot.org (in French only)
Guide de préparation, d'animation et d'intégration, a guide for preparing, facilitating and integrating the parent-intervention worker dialogue(in French only)
Analyse des résultats, analysis of the results of the first workshops (in French only)

Halte-garderie du cœur drop-in daycare centre…forever!

Proposed by Cégep de Saint-Hyacinthe

The innovative pedagogical model developed by Cégep de Saint-Hyacinthe’s Department for Early Childhood Education Techniques and implemented by the Halte-garderie du cœur drop-in daycare centre puts students into contact situations with families that are vulnerable, have an immigrant background, or whose children are grappling with specific problems.

Objectives :

Develop a comprehensive set of skills associated with the early childhood education techniques program in a hands-on learning context in a quality daycare service under the direct supervision of professors (in situ learning)
Offer a quality daycare service to children and parents from vulnerable families, with an immigrant background or with special needs, in collaboration with various local partners

Advantages :

Future kindergarten teachers can obtain professional experience in a setting that includes guidance from instructors
Considerable knowledge enhancement and awareness-building among kindergarten teachers in connection with the different realities faced by families
Kindergarten teachers can develop their reflexive practice
Concrete learning of educational practices with young children
Adaptation of ministry estimates for integrating the approach into school curricula
Significant and relevant professional experience opportunity for students

SUPPLEMENTARY DOCUMENTS

Partner organization description on agirtot.org (in French only)
Presentation of the thematic day under the motto Créer une relation de confiance parents-intervenant, la clé pour soutenir les familles en contexte de défavorisation (Creating a relationship of trust between parents and intervention workers—the key to supporting families in underprivileged circumstances) (in French only)

I develop professionally in my drop-in daycare centre

Proposed by the Association des haltes-garderies communautaires du Québec

Je grandis en halte-garderie is a complementary education and training program to help support team practices in community-based drop-in daycare centres.

Objectives :

Support teaching staff and managers with the introduction of an education program in community-based drop-in daycare centres
Enable teaching staff to step up their practices in connection with specific aspects of child development
Offer teaching support in the workplace

Advantages :

Improved educational practices with young children
Enhanced continuing education opportunities for kindergarten teachers
Reinforced links between parents and intervention workers
Kindergarten teachers can develop or strengthen their reflexive practice
Improved organizational management through the establishment of an early childhood education program

SUPPLEMENTARY DOCUMENTS

Je grandis en halte-garderie education program (in French only)
The appropriation process contained in a toolbox for facilitating the introduction of an education program in drop-in daycare centres (in French only)
Specific training programs on the following topics: “Interventions while reinforcing social skills,” “I express my needs in my own way,” “I learn to talk,” “Collaborating with parents,” “Managers—guardians of educational quality,” “Play activities for all ages” (in French only)
Specific training program booklets (in French only)
Specific training program vidéos (in French only)
Observation tool resources (in French only)
L’intervention démocratique en halte-garderie resource listings for democratic interventions in drop-in daycare centres, including several intervention strategies (in French only)
Training supplement for the “Interventions while reinforcing social skills” training program: Je grandis avec les autres (in French only)
Activity resources for kindergarten teachers in drop-in daycare centres (in French only)
Partner organization description on agirtot.org (in French only)

Agora

Proposed by the Fédération québécoise des organismes communautaires Famille (FQOCF)

The AGORA project facilitates the development of and reflexive workshops for members of the Fédération québécoise des organismes communautaires Famille provenant de l’ensemble des régions du Québec.

Objectives :

Encourage collective reflection in Famille community organizations with regard to the values and foundational practices—as set out in the Cadre de référence sur les pratiques d’action communautaire autonome Famille—by bringing together the expertise and knowledge developed together with families for over 50 years

Advantages :

Intervention workers can develop or strengthen their reflexive practice
Management of the team adapted to the realities of families and Famille community organizations
Reinforcement of the family-guidance approach

SUPPLEMENTARY DOCUMENTS

Appropriation tool and reference framework (in French only)
Agora project on the FQOCF website (in French only)
Partner organization description on agirtot.org (in French only)

The early years, a life-long impact

Proposed by the Association québécoise des centres de la petite enfance

Petite enfance, grande importance is a project that provides guidance to daycare centre teams located in underprivileged environments.

Objectives :

Offer children in 80 daycare centres in underprivileged areas a stimulating educational environment through educational interventions that encourage their cognitive, linguistic, social and emotional development
Provide guidance to these daycare centres so that they can create a positive atmosphere conducive to establishing co-educational relationships with parents, which, among other things, would be supportive of their parenting roles

Advantages :

Improved educational practices with young children
Reinforced links between parents and intervention workers
Kindergarten teachers can develop or strengthen their reflexive practice
Appropriate management of the team adapted to the realities of families

SUPPLEMENTARY DOCUMENTS

Presentation of the Petite enfance, grande importance project on the AQCPE website (in French only)
Partner organization description on agirtot.org (in French only)

Municipalities and cities that live up to children’s needs

Conferences presented by Carrefour action municipale et famille

Municipalities and cities that live up to children’s needs is a series of conferences that were presented at the Grand Rally for our Little Ones on November 20 and 21, 2018.

Objectives :

Present different ways to imagine “urban planning” and “children”

Advantages :

Concrete examples of urban planning possibilities
International initiatives in the spotlight
An understanding of the potential when using creativity in urban planning for the benefit of children and families

SUPPLEMENTARY DOCUMENTS

A city for young children and parents, by Leonardo Yánez - Bernard Van Leer Foundation / Urban 95
Adapting urban development to suit children: lessons from Europe and Canada, by Tim Gill, independent researcher, author and consultant
Excerpt of the plenary address on the current state of early childhood development in Québec, by Paul Lewis, Grand Rally for our Little Ones, 2018
Website of the Grand Rally for our Little Ones, 2018

Legend

Individual / Parent

Everyone

The government

Intervention workers

Organizations and institutions