Federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Karina Gould came to the Future Stars Daycare in Cochrane on April 22 to announce new funding for a national project aimed at helping educators build resilience in children.
The project, Building capacity and resilience through physical literacy and active play, will receive $428,303 in federal funding over the next 24 months.
“This project will provide early childhood educators with the tools and resources they need to provide active play opportunities for children,” Gould said during a press conference.
The project aims to build resilience in children in diverse communities across Canada such as racialized communities, Indigenous Peoples, Canadian newcomers, and those living in rural remote or northern communities.
“This will result in cognitive, social, emotional and physical benefits for children as well as early childhood educators,” Gould said.
Future Stars was chosen as a pilot project as this initiative was being developed, and the minister had a captive audience of local three- and four-year-olds responding on cue throughout the announcement.
The other local connection was provided by Cochrane resident Richard Monette, who heads the Active for Life initiative, which will run the project. Active for Life is a Canadian not-for-profit national social initiative created to help parents give their children the right start in life through the development of physical literacy.
Monette said in today’s busy world, filled with all kinds of electronic screens, it is easy for kids to become too sedentary.
Active for Life aims to change that.
“We reach millions of educators, to help them understand that getting children to move every day is actually easy and simple, like it used to be when we were kids,” Monette said.
“As experts tell us, active children are healthier and more resilient. With this grant Active for Life will create and promote resources designed to build Early Childhood Educators’ capacity to provide daily physical active play opportunities for children,” he said.
Educators can access the initiative at activeforlife.com
Federal budgets 2016 and 2017 provided funding of $7.5 billion over 11 years for early learning and child care. Of this, $100 million is being dedicated to early learning and child care innovation.
A post on the federal government's website Canada.ca claims studies show that for every dollar invested in early childhood education, the broader economy receives between $1.50 and $2.80 in return.
