Programs for early learning give children a head start
Okanagan Saturday
August 9, 2008
Opinion By: Kent Stralbiski, Child Care Action Team,

Re: Kindergarten idea sparks space concerns

… while our responses to the Early Childhood Learning Agency about the proposed initiatives for these programs were correctly quoted, the description of the Child Care Action Team was not accurate.

No offence taken, of course, but to set the record straight, the Child Care Action Team is not an umbrella and lobby group for child-care providers in Kelowna.

The Child Care Action Team is one of several participatory groups currently active in guiding the Community Action Toward Children's Health coalition (C.A.T.C.H. ) in furthering the development of healthy children in the Central Okanagan.

The C.A.T.C.H. coalition has partners throughout the Central Okanagan, including many individuals, boards, societies, firms, governments and other agencies.

All of the partners are committed to working together to provide for the needs of children, parents, and families in building a stronger community. A stronger community that begins with healthier children -- physically, emotionally, and intellectually.

While C.A.T.C.H. partners work together to initiate and implement actions to achieve the vision of a healthier community for children, the needs being addressed are determined by you, the people of the Central Okanagan, through interviews, dialogues, forums, conferences and other forms of contact initiated by C.A.T.C.H.

The guidance provided by the action teams is based on factual research, both here at home and across the globe, provided through partnerships with researchers, universities and other credible organizations.

The Child Care Action Team exists because access to affordable, high quality child care is a need repeatedly expressed to C.A.T.C.H. by many people throughout our communities.

Because research shows that early learning opportunities provided in high quality child care settings improves children's abilities in school.

Financial investments in effective child care have been shown to reduce the cost of health care and social justice far beyond the costs incurred in the early years.

C.A.T.C.H. exists because people of our community who are in the workforce, whether by need or choice, rely on child care as a partner in the healthy development of children.

Our present is our children's future, in every meaning of the phrase.

The Child Care Action Team is working both to increase access to child care and to develop ways to help providers enhance the quality of early learning opportunities in child care settings….