Best Start
Working together to give all children the Best possible start
Rethinking services for pre-schoolers, the Province has introduced “Best Start”. Best Start is an initiative which will bring together, in unprecedented levels of collaboration, all agencies involved with children 0-6 and their families.
Mothercraft Ottawa's Ontario Early Years Centre is the Lead for Ottawa Centre in working with the community to determine how Best Start will work best in each of our neighbourhoods.
What is even more exciting is that the tangible recommendations for each neighbourhood will be made by the people who work and live there! This means that daycares, community centres, schools, Ottawa Public Health, community health centres, Ontario Early Years Centres, Ottawa Public Library, recreation centres, and parents and other important support for children and their families will be working together for the common goal of increased accessibility for ALL families.
Neighbourhood planning tables are being convened in Carleton Heights, Centretown, Dalhousie, Glebe, Westboro and Ottawa West to identify the ideal locations for Best Start Hubs in these communities. Best Start Hubs will bring access all local and city wide services to the neighbourhoods where they are needed in locations that are accessible by families. These teams will be working with research data and their own understanding of the community to make their recommendations for these hubs.
To view the Best Start Planning Activities for Ottawa Centre, and each of its neighbourhoods click here.
For more information about the Best Start initiative, or to get involved in the planning for your neighbourhood see this overview of the report on Ontario's early learning strategy
http://www.ontario.ca/en/initiatives/early_learning/ONT06_018876
or contact:
Rachel Horsley, Community Developer
rachel@mothercraft.com
(613) 290-5857
Myrian Pepin, Best Start Lead, Ottawa Centre
myrian@mothercraft.com
(613) 728-1839 x249
In future, this calendar will list all of the events, workshops and services available for Ottawa Centre families. To host a copy of this calendar on your website, please contact rachel@mothercraft.com