Child-care, Family Resource Centres Get Boost
The health and well-being of Nova Scotia children and their families is being supported through new and enhanced programs announced by the Department of Community Services.
The investments in programs and services at child-care and family resource centres are part of the federal-provincial-territorial Early Childhood Development Initiative.
"The province of Nova Scotia is committed to supporting families and improving opportunities for children to learn and grow in a healthy and happy environment," said Community Services Minister David Morse. "This investment in the programs that support children and their families will enhance opportunities for children to have a healthy start in life."
In all, $1.3 million in grants will help promote children's physical activity, ensure children with special needs are included in quality programming, provide information to families seeking child care, and provide speech and language consultations and assistance to family resource centres in Nova Scotia.
The largest part of the funding, $726,000, will help promote physical activity in licensed child-care centres that operate part days. The centres must use the funding to buy materials and resources that help increase children's activity, such as music, dance or movement videos, skipping ropes, balls or tricycles. They will also receive information entitled Active Living for Early Childhood. Developed by the sport and recreation division of the Office of Health Promotion, the information provides tips to help centres incorporate activity into their day-to-day programming.
A $300,000 partnership inclusion grant will help children with special needs receive responsive child care. The grant helps licensed child-care centres assess their programming and work on areas that need to be better developed to accommodate children with special needs. This new investment will allow an additional 22 licensed child-care centres across the province to join the program, for a total of 66 centres.
A child-care information and support grant of $200,000 will give parents and caregivers better access to child-related training, information and support materials through Family Resource Centres in both rural and urban communities. The new funding will mean a total of 14 Family Resource Centres will provide support in communities across the province.
The final grant provides $160,000 for a program called Early Language and Learning. Each Family Resource Centre receiving an Early Language and Learning grant has a speech-language pathologist who provides training and consultation to the centre and other early childhood development programs within their community. Grants are also used by Family Resource Centres to enhance programming that promotes children's early language, early literacy skills and cognitive development.
In September 2000, the federal, provincial and territorial governments committed to improve and expand early childhood development supports and services through the Agreement on Early Childhood Development. In May 2001, Nova Scotia published Our Children...Today's Investment, Tomorrow's Promise, a document that outlines the province's vision for a system of early childhood development. To date, $40 million has been invested in the Early Childhood Development Initiative. Between 2000 and 2006, $65 million will be invested in services for children in Nova Scotia.