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Children and Childcare

Tools and Resources

The City of Vancouver is committed to assisting with the development of high-quality, licensed childcare and child development services.

As part of this work we have developed this new web-page with a view to providing various resources that are centred around children’s services and well-being. If you know of materials that should be included here, please let us know. Send your ideas and suggestions to social.planning@vancouver.ca.

Assessing Community Needs

• Childcare and Early Childhood Needs Assessments: A Community and Consultant ‘Tool Kit’
  (PDF, 57KB) - A brief document that outlines key considerations for the planning of community Needs Assessment research. (Spring, 2003).
• Mount Pleasant Child Development Services Needs and Preference Assessment: Final Report - January 2003 (PDF, 213KB)
• VanMap GIS Mapping of Childcare Facilities:
Social Planning, in conjunction with VanMap and Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre, has mapped licensed, group childcare centres, preschools, out of school care centres, child development hubs and new city-owned facilities under development on the City’s GIS mapping system.

Childcare Administration

• INFORM Guide: The 4th edition of the Westcoast  INFORM Guide: An Administration Manual for Non-Profit Child Care in B.C. Revised, updated and expanded. New features include: CD-ROM with sample templates, budget tool kits, additional resources in the Appendix. This text has to be ordered directly from Westcoast - contact Westcoast Childcare Resource Centre at www.wstcoast.org or call, 604-709-5699.
• Child Care Human Resources Sector Council: Occupational Standards for Child Care Administrators.

Design

• Childcare Technical Guidelines (PDF, 1.04MB). City of Vancouver Corporate Services. Revised November 2008.
• Childcare Design Guidelines (PDF, 331KB). City of Vancouver. February 1993. Currently under review.
• Quality by Design. The City of Vancouver is a partner in the Quality by Design project. Quality by Design is a national exploratory project intended to develop strategies for improving quality at the policy level, by working with provincial policy makers on system-wide policy level approaches. The project is consistent with the Organization for Economic and Cooperative Development’s thematic review on early childhood education and care, which identifies the importance of improving quality as a priority among member countries.
• “Noise” Hurts Kids (PDF, 84KB) - A fact sheet by Vancouver Coastal Health that discusses the effects of varying noise levels in childcare facilities.
• YWCA: Lots to Build On, More to Do: Blueprint for Community Architecture for Early Childhood Learning and Care, October 2005 (PDF, 262KB). YWCA Canada and YWCA of Vancouver are pleased to share the results of recent project work in Vancouver under their “Building A Community Architecture for Early Childhood Learning and Care” project. This project was carried out in collaboration with the City of Vancouver, and the findings are summarized in this report.
• Continuous Quality Improvement Process Manual (PDF, 529 KB) - A brief public funded by the City of Vancouver that is intended to assist child care providers in being intentional in their planning for quality in a child care setting.

Food, Nutrition and Food Safety Resources

• Healthy Start Model Menu (PDF, 293KB) - Westcoast Childcare Resource Centre, November 2006
• Healthy Start Model Recipe Book (PDF, 4.63MB) - Westcoast Childcare Resource Centre, November 2006
• Healthy Start Model Menu (PDF, 284KB) - Developed by Margaret Broughton of Westcoast Childcare Resource Centre
• Fight Bac: Focus on Separate - Avoiding Cross Contamination Tip Sheet - (PDF, 330KB) Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education
• Fight Bac: Focus on Chill - Refrigeration Tip Sheet - (PDF, 251KB) Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education
• Fight Back: Focus on Clean - Hygiene Tip Sheet - (PDF, 307KB) Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education
• Fight Back: Focus on Cook - Cooking Temperatures Tip Sheet - (PDF, 298KB) Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education
• Fact Sheet: The Invisible Enemy - Bacteria - (PDF, 49KB) Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education
• Microwave Ovens and Food Safety - (PDF, 58KB) - Health Canada, July 2005
• Severe Allergic Reactions - (PDF, 52KB) - Health Canada, May 2003
• Life Threatening Food Allergies in School and Childcare Settings: A Practical Resource for Parents, Care Providers and Staff (PDF, 143KB) Ministry for Children and Families.

Program Development

• Continuous Quality Improvement Process Manual (PDF, 529 KB) - A brief public funded by the City of Vancouver that is intended to assist child care providers in being intentional in their planning for quality in a child care setting. (Second Edition, December, 2005)

The Role of Municipalities in Child Development

• The Joint Council on Childcare is involved with a national research study, examining the municipal role in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Services. The rational for this study is based on the fact that Cities are the place where most Canadian children and families access ECEC services. And, the local level is also where the integration of services for children and families—schools, recreation, and health as well as early learning and childcare—occurs.
  » Learning From Each Other - ELCC Research Report 2006 (PDF, 925KB)
  » Learning From Each Other - ELCC Technical Report 2006 (PDF, 780KB)
  » Learning From Each Other - Summary of Key Findings (PDF, 32KB)
  

Child Development Hub Models

• In 2002, building on the Civic Childcare Strategy, the City of Vancouver Council adopted a vision and framework “Moving Forward” Childcare: A Cornerstone of Child Development Services, to better integrate early childhood education and care at both, a policy and implementation level, locally.
• The City of Vancouver has partnered with the YWCA on a pan-Canadian childcare project funded by Social Development Canada. The goals of this project are to: (1) Further define and advance Vancouver’s vision for an integrated and coordinated approach to child care/ child development through neighbourhood hubs; and, (2) Review and consider the costs and benefits of the Vancouver model for childcare and child development, in order to better understand how the hub model can be effectively created, modeled and ultimately replicated more broadly in Vancouver and, potentially, in other municipalities as well.
  » YWCA/ City of Vancouver Child Development Hub Model Project (PDF, 262KB)
• Models of Child Development Hubs Outside Vancouver. Prepared for the Social Planning Department by Cindy Carson. April 2005. (PDF, 1.1MB)

External Links - Childcare/Child Development

• Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada
• Childcare Resource and Research Unit
• Child Care Human Resources Sector Council
• Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC
• Human Early Learning Partnership(HELP), UBC
• Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre

And the rest...

• Major City of Vancouver Policy documents are available on the Key Policy Documents page.
• Childcare and Child Development Council reports are available on the childcare links page.
• Additional social planning resources are available elsewhere in the Social Planning web-pages.

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Questions or Comments? E-mail: social.planning@vancouver.ca

© 2010 City of Vancouver
Last modified: Tuesday, May 11, 2010