Information
October 2002
Child development centre helps children get a better start in life
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Cherie Stanley is amazed at how much her two children have learned since she enrolled
them in the Lily Pad Child Development Centre, located on the Frog Lake First Nation in
northern Alberta.
"My son Jeremy didn't like to share with other children," she says of the 3-year-old. "But
now he's getting used to sharing. I'm amazed how much he's grown."
Her daughter, Alyssa, 5, enjoys activities such as art, nature walks, story time and playing
outdoors in the afternoon.
"Grade 1 teachers on the reserve school and off-reserve at the public school are seeing
a huge improvement in the children's social, intellectual and emotional skills," says Lynn
Stanley, director of Lily Pad. "Some of the Grade 1 children are reading now."
In the four years since the Lily Pad Child Development Centre opened, about 300 children
and their parents have used its services. The centre not only provides quality programming
during the day for children aged 13 months to 6 years, but also offers classes at night
for parents on parenting skills and early childhood education. In addition to attending
night classes, parents travel to the local college for more training.
"It opened the doors of employment that were previously shut for some of these individuals," says
Lynn Stanley.
Some parents, like Cherie Stanley, applied for and got a full-time job at Lily Pad.
The mother of two has seen first-hand the positive difference staff at Lily Pad have made
in the lives of the children in this small community of 2,000: "Last year we had some children
who had emotional issues. We tried to help them with their problems as much as we could
and they opened up to us. People are amazed at the difference in them."
With parents learning and working at the centre and their children getting a head start
on their education, it's clear that Lily Pad is a community-driven enterprise in the purest
sense.
Finding affordable child care facilities is a major hurdle that many parents must overcome
before they are able to work or take training to improve their financial situation and
job prospects.
That's particularly true of Frog Lake First Nation, where there is a high rate of young
mothers on social assistance, says director Lynn Stanley.
"There was a real need to help these young parents get off social assistance by providing
child care services for their children so they could go back to school or look for a job," she
says. "About 80 per cent of the parents who use the centre are adult students. The rest
are working parents."
Stanley muses on the philosophical idea that it takes a community to raise a child: "We
make that a reality".
Funded by Human Resources Development Canada, the Lily Pad centre was established with
the help of the First Nations and Inuit Child Care program. As part of the Aboriginal Human
Resources Development Strategy, the program has a mandate to support the healthy development
of First Nations and Inuit children and help their parents by providing affordable child
care. The First Nations and Inuit Child Care program is receiving additional funds through
the Federal Strategy on Early Childhood Development for First Nations and other Aboriginal
children announced on October 31, 2002.
For more information on the federal strategy, see:  www.canada.gc.ca/whats/whatsnew_e.html.
For more information on the First Nations and Inuit Child Care program, see: www.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca
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