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This report presents the findings of the formative evaluation of the joint Canada/British Columbia Strategic Initiative: Improved Access to Child Care project¹. The formative evaluation addresses issues surrounding the start-up of the project in fiscal year 1995-96. As such, the focus of this report is on issues related to: program design and delivery; program co-ordination; and program systems development.

This report is an aggregation of formative evaluation findings and analysis of individual child care projects that were funded under the CCSI project in the 1995-96 fiscal year. The projects included:

• One-Stop Access projects carried out at five sites, namely: Nelson, Penticton, Terrace, Vancouver and Courtney/Comox; and
• the Regional Delivery model projects² , specifically, the Oaklands and Vancouver Regional Umbrella Group initiatives.

The formative evaluation was conducted between January and March, 1996, by a private consulting firm under contract with the Research, Evaluation, and Intergovernmental Affairs Branch of the Ministry of Women's Equality. Appendix A presents the evaluation questions developed by the Joint Evaluation Working Group ³.

Data collection for the formative evaluation included a review of the background and planning documents of both the Ministry of Women's Equality and the sponsoring societies of each of the individual child care projects. Data were also obtained via focus groups and individual interviews. The interviews were conducted with key community stakeholders from each of the child care projects, current and former staff of the Ministry of Women's Equality involved in the CCSI project, and a representative of Human Resources Development Canada who was involved in this project since its inception.

The formative evaluation is one component of an evaluation framework jointly developed by the JEWG. The other components of the framework are a process evaluation and a summative evaluation. The framework is discussed in detail in Section 1.5, Evaluation Framework: Purpose and Description.

Footnotes

1	Canada/British Columbia Strategic Initiative: Improved Access to Child Care hereafter referred to as the Child Care Strategic Initiative or CCSI.
2	In the report, Regional Delivery model projects are referred to as Community Demonstration Projects.
3	The Joint Evaluation Working Group (JEWG) comprises representatives from the federal government (i.e., two representatives from HRDC - one from the BC Regional Headquarters (RHQ) and one from National Headquarters (NHQ), and provincial government representation from the Ministry of Women’s Equality, Ministry of Social Services, and Ministry of Education, Skills, Training & Labour .