Ready 4 Learning – (Bowness/Montgomery/Greenwood Village Early
Childhood Coalition) Meeting
Thursday, Oct 12, 2012
Bowcroft Elementary School
“Getting the word out” Working Group
The following coalition members chose to join the conversation for
this working group:
Josee (Society for the Treatment of Autism), Lynette (Bowness
resident and Healthy Families), Aaron (2nd year MRU Nursing
student), Susan (teacher, Belvedere Parkway School), Meesha
(teacher, Bowcroft School), Dana (MRU student, Renfrew
Educational Services), Marlene (Renfrew Educational Services),
Susan (Renfrew Educational Services), Christa (CAFÉ Institute).
Josee offered to take on the facilitator role for the group.
The conversation began with an acknowledgement of the importance
of the Public Health Nurse. Families in Bowness are now seen in the
Ranchlands area. Drop in times are available weekly.
Lynette informed the group about her work with the Calgary Healthy
Families Collaborative. of the screening process done by the Public
Health Nurses, indentifying risk factors such as depression and
addictions. This screening then determines referrals to the Healthy
Families Program. Referrals are also received from the AVIRT team.
Ages and Stages tools are used in this program. Skills are taught to
moms to promote healthy development of their children. Pathways
and Hull are two of the agencies providing the Healthy Families home
visitation program.
Considerable conversation around the existing resources in the
community and how to access them took place. Families Matter /
Parent Link is the resource that Meesha most often refers to. Their
kindergarten readiness, preschool and speech language pathology
services were noted.
Many in the group would like to have a better understanding of what
the resources in the Bowness/Montgomery/Greenwood Village area
are. All felt that they needed to understand what was already
happening in the community. Meesha offered to speak to the Boys
and Girls Club as well as Families Matter to invite a member of these
organizations to join the group.
Priorities for moving the group forward…. A good understanding of
what resources are already being offered was thought to be a good
place to start the work of this group.
Meesha brought up the needs around quality childcare in the
community. She sees transportation as an issue for many parents,
which then complicates the childcare issue. Safe, professional and
inviting childcare right in the community could relieve a lot of parental
stress. She stated that statistics are the means to influence policy
makers. The idea of the school as the community base for children
and the potential to have preschool and child care in the school was
raised. The issue of licensing and insurance were apparent
deterrents in the past. The need to share information about quality
before and after school options was also noted.
How to “get the word out” in a meaningful way was discussed. All
agreed that many information resources already exist, but to
empower parents to step forward, especially those that are stressed,
conversation and the ability to direct to resources were important.
Ideas about where such conversations could take place were shared.
Parent teacher interviews were suggested as an opportunity for this
type of communication. Meesha related that it takes time to
understand what a family might really need, as parents are often
uncomfortable to express their needs. A relationship with trust is the
first step. Limited conversation time between parents and teachers is
an issue.
Susan added that parents are often very relieved to have their
parenting struggles normalized. They may feel very reluctant to share
their struggles but experience real relief when they learn that others
are having the same struggles.
Iris noted a recent study suggesting that parents prefer support over
information and when parents are given information without support,
it can shut them down. This further reinforced the importance of
sharing information in the right kind of context. If we try to act in too
fast and efficient manner might we only shut parents down?
The idea of how we might welcome parents with an opportunity to
begin a conversation, providing them with information and resources
was explored.
Bowcroft offers a Kindergarten orientation. Attendance has been poor
in the past and childcare is an issue. Renfrew has also hosted family
support nights with food and childcare. Their enrollment has also
been low.
The discussion turned to how we might make “inadvertent”
connections with families, how families might feel more welcome if
things were not set up to look like interventions but more like they
happen at Families Matter drop in times. The question of evening
drop in hours at Families Matter was raised.
Action items:
Josee will speak to get a list of sites, programs and agencies from
Iris.
All will brainstorm about resources that they are aware of. How are
these people and organizations connecting with and reaching out to
families? How can people and organizations find out about these
programs? Can there be a bulk email send out with a list of upcoming
events?
Meesha will confirm with Iris the availability of space for the next
meeting. Meesha will also speak with Families Matter and the Boys
and Girls Club to extend an invitation to join the group conversation.
Next meeting:
Wednesday, November 8th, 2012, 5:30 PM
Bowcroft School library