Early Learning & Care
The YWCA offers a full service child care programs for children ages 18 months to 12 years old. In addition to the program space, the location offers a full service kitchen and a gymnasium. The program will serve a projected 46 children in 2006. This program is paid for by parent fees, and by support from the Department of Community Services which supports a limited number of parents with child care subsidies. Contact the Family and Children’s Programs Manager at 423-6163 for information on space availability and fee schedules.
RECESS
RECESS: Reaching Out to Early Childhood Educators for Success is a program aimed at increasing the physical activity of pre-school aged children. The program will provide training for Early Childhood Educators at four centres, to equip teachers with the tools and knowledge to deliver age-appropriate physical activity programming within limited equipment, and within the child care centre space. This is a pilot program funded by the Office of Health Promotion, and supported by YWCA donors. This program is projected to serve 72 children with over 1500 hours of programming.
PHASE II: Community Architecture for Early Learning and Care
From April 1 2004 – May 2005 the Halifax YWCA was one of four member associations in Canada that participated in a pan-Canadian research project to design a community-based system of early learning and care. With the support of an impressive and diverse task force, the Halifax YWCA designed an optimal continuum of early learning and care, with ‘one stop shopping’ for families and children. The vision is a ‘multi service centre’ approach to early learning that would centralize child care with parent resource and health promotion programming through coordination and partnering of community agencies and services. Parents and children would be connected to vital services and programming in centralized, community-based ‘hubs’. Now that the ‘Phase I’ of the research is complete, the Halifax YWCA is exploring opportunities to implement and apply this research, and actually create this ‘hub-model’ approach to early learning and care.
Four-year-old girls are physically active four hours a week less than boys. Over 40 % of Canadian children aged 2 to 5 were overweight in 1998/99.
Nova Scotia Office of Health Promotion.
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