ADVOCACY UPDATE - DECEMBER 14, 2007
Dear Friends of Child Care:
As winter is nearing us and the 2007 year begins drawing to a close, it becomes time to celebrate all that we have accomplished over the past year, and look forward to the year to come.
As you may already know, the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada has had a busy and exciting fall. Already we have launched the completion of our Making the Connections project, and now we are pleased to announce to you the completion of the Minding Our P’s and Q’s: Pedagogy, Policy and Quality project*. The findings of this project are timely for a period of visioning and taking stock such as this. The project’s final report is entitled The Best of All Worlds: A Community Vision for Early Learning and Child Care in Canada. You can find this publication as well as related background documentation on our website.
This report finds that “Canadians are fed up with the patchwork of fragmented services and expressed a clear desire to develop a system that simultaneously meets all the goals for early learning and child care… We can do better – in fact, we can have the best of all worlds… A comprehensive, holistic vision does not specify where the child is, but rather than wherever the child is – at home or in the community – their experiences support healthy child development while parents are supported in all of their roles.”
This project highlights that our children, our families and our communities can and must have the child care support that they need. There is no reason why they should not; many countries have already succeeded in showing us the way.
If you would like hard copies of The Best of All Worlds sent to you please contact our office at info@ccaac.ca with your name and contact information or call 1-877-261-1342 (toll free) or (613) 594-3196 x 231 (Ottawa area).
We would like to take this opportunity to send our warm thanks and appreciation to our members, partners and supporters for your hard work and dedication over the past year. We wish you and yours a restful, peaceful and joyful holiday season, and we look forward to working alongside you once again in the year to come.
Jody Dallaire
Board Chair,
Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada
* The CCAAC gratefully acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada’s Social Development Partnerships Program in completing the Minding Our P’s and Q’s project.