A number of community members are committed to better preparing young children in Red Deer for optimal learning at school.
Laurie Lafortune, Understanding the Early Years Red Deer project co-ordinator, said about 45 individuals gathered on Monday for a forum to brainstorm goals for three priority areas identified from discussions at the first community consultation held in December.
“Actually, Red Deer is very fortunate,” Lafortune said, talking of programs and services catering to the development of children up to the age of six.
“We have a lot of good things going on, so it’s just a matter of fine-tuning and filling some gaps.”
The stakeholders split into three smaller groups to discuss the main areas of concern, which Lafortune listed as: information and awareness for parents about the importance of the early years; a continuum of quality programs and services for children up to the age of six; and family policy, advocacy and workplace issues.
She explained that the individuals — who represented a range of areas from education, health, recreation, family agencies to parents themselves — brainstormed desired results and outcomes for each topic and the strategic development necessary to reach these goals.
The notes from the Monday meeting are now being transcribed to prepare a community action plan document.
Lafortune said a small number of community members expressed an interest in continuing to meet as a group to ensure the plan becomes operational and that local children are provided with better opportunities. She anticipates meetings will start within a month.
The Community Action Forum was organized to address the findings of the Understanding the Early Years project in Red Deer.
The research initiative is one of more than 40 similar projects across Canada that has been federally funded for the past three years to provide information on factors that impact a child’s readiness to learn at school.
Lafortune said the project observed more than 850 non-special needs Red Deer kindergarten children in March 2009.
The local results found that 17.8 per cent of these children were not developmentally ready in at least one area, with communication skills and general knowledge being the most common areas of concern.
While young children in Red Deer fared better than the Canadian average of 27.2 per cent, Lafortune said more needs to be done.
“The overarching goal that kept coming up is that we want all children in Red Deer to meet their full potential,” she said.
Federal funding for Understanding the Early Years will cease at the end of June, but Lafortune said the community group that grew out of the process will continue to make program and service improvements to help Red Deer children succeed in school.
ptrotter@www.reddeeradvocate.com