Advocacy

The early years sector faces challenging times due to workforce shortages, the introduction of the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care plan and the continued fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic.

What we advocate for

• Fair wages, professional development opportunities and better working conditions for child care workers
• Sector investment, including increased funding for early childhood education and care programs to ensure their long-term sustainability; policies geared toward recruiting and retaining qualified child care workers; and policies that foster the development of high-quality early childhood education programs
• Marginalized families, including increased funding for programs as well as promoting diversity and inclusivity in early childhood education and care programs

Our partners in advocacy

Throughout our history, we’ve partnered with a range of organizations to advocate for the optimal development of children. Some past and present partners include:

• Quality Early Learning Network
• Home Child Care Association of Ontario
• Toronto Child & Family Network
• Decent Work Common Table
• Toronto Children’s Services EarlyON Black Leadership Advisory Table
• Toronto Metropolitan University’s Early Childhood Service System Project

Through a number of community partnerships, we’ve worked to enhance services for children and families with extra support needs and engaged with equity-deserving families.

Inclusive Early Childhood Service System Project

We sit on the advisory committee for analyzing Black experiences of early childhood disability services.

Preschool Speech and Language Program’s Toronto-Wide Working Group for Neurodiversity Affirming Practice

We support capacity-building of the program’s neurodiversity-affirming practices within the field of speech-language pathology.

Toronto Child & Family Network

We collaborate to improve quality, access and seamless service pathways to enhance the well-being of all children and families in Toronto.

Explore some of the partnerships we’ve made around Toronto to further important causes, such as community health, neurodiversity inclusion and racial equity.

• Selected to partner with Mothercraft, Agincourt Community Services Association, Centre Francophone de Grand Toronto, and the Malvern Family Resource Centre to deliver the Check It Out virtual early identification and referral pilot project to support families with children ages 0–6.
• Collaborated with the Toronto Child & Family Network and the York Weston Pelham Cluster.
• Partnered with the Early Childhood Development Initiative to provide information sessions for families of West African descent.
• Received the EarlyON Innovation Grant along with partners Garry Hurvitz Centre for Community Mental Health at SickKids and Caribbean African Canadian Social Services (CAFCAN) to:
  • create a pilot project to train staff in all three partner agencies.
  • reach out to the Black community.
  • develop programming for Black children and families, and additional EarlyON locations in the northwest quadrant of the city.
• Collaborated extensively to deliver programs and services with Program without Walls, Supporting Young Families and Jane Street Hub.
• Partnered with numerous public institutions, including libraries, community centres and community health centres to deliver programs and services, share information and conduct outreach.
• Collaborated with the Toronto District School Board and the Toronto Catholic District School Board, as well as colleges and universities, including Humber College, George Brown College, Sheridan College and Toronto Metropolitan University, to help promote professional development and employment opportunities within the sector.