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Popular preschool program compromised
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Contact:
Debbie Bell, 604.291.5145, debbie_bell@sfu.ca
Wazi Kapenda, 604.718.5817, wld@sfu.ca
Lucy LeMare, 604.291.3272, lucy_lemare@sfu.ca
Debbie Bell, 604.291.5145, debbie_bell@sfu.ca
Wazi Kapenda, 604.718.5817, wld@sfu.ca
Lucy LeMare, 604.291.3272, lucy_lemare@sfu.ca
November 28, 2003
A preschool program that has become a powerful stepping-stone to kindergarten for at-risk preschoolers is struggling to stay alive in Vancouver. The Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program, which exists internationally, got its start in Vancouver four years ago.
Simon Fraser University’s community education program in continuing studies, the Britannia Community Service centre and the National Council of Jewish Women of Canada founded HIPPY Vancouver. They failed earlier this year to get enough funding to keep the program running at the level of service it reached with start-up funding from government, private industry and non-profit groups.
HIPPY Vancouver’s founders are keeping a severely downsized version of the program going with $50,000 from Windows of Opportunity (a provincially funded program that helps poor and isolated families), some leftover money from the original funding and a small grant from a foundation. But Kapenda says that enables HIPPY Vancouver to service only 75 of the more than 150 children it was helping before its original funding ended.
All of the program’s staff, including six home visitors, has been cut back to half-time work. Sixty new children are on a waiting list to get into the highly successful internationally based program, which trains home visitors to help parents prepare their three-to-five year olds for kindergarten.
The program targets families who, for cultural, domestic and economic reasons, are not able to access government subsidized centre-based pre-schooling programs. Three recent studies demonstrate that the HIPPY program helps preschoolers in disadvantaged families perform as well as, if not even better than, other preschoolers. SFU early childhood education expert Lucy LeMare authored two of the studies.
—30—
(electronic photo files available)
Websites:
HIPPY program: www.sfu.ca/cstudies/community/index.htm
Lucy LeMare: www.educ.sfu.ca/fri/leMare/
Simon Fraser University’s community education program in continuing studies, the Britannia Community Service centre and the National Council of Jewish Women of Canada founded HIPPY Vancouver. They failed earlier this year to get enough funding to keep the program running at the level of service it reached with start-up funding from government, private industry and non-profit groups.
HIPPY Vancouver’s founders are keeping a severely downsized version of the program going with $50,000 from Windows of Opportunity (a provincially funded program that helps poor and isolated families), some leftover money from the original funding and a small grant from a foundation. But Kapenda says that enables HIPPY Vancouver to service only 75 of the more than 150 children it was helping before its original funding ended.
All of the program’s staff, including six home visitors, has been cut back to half-time work. Sixty new children are on a waiting list to get into the highly successful internationally based program, which trains home visitors to help parents prepare their three-to-five year olds for kindergarten.
The program targets families who, for cultural, domestic and economic reasons, are not able to access government subsidized centre-based pre-schooling programs. Three recent studies demonstrate that the HIPPY program helps preschoolers in disadvantaged families perform as well as, if not even better than, other preschoolers. SFU early childhood education expert Lucy LeMare authored two of the studies.
—30—
(electronic photo files available)
Websites:
HIPPY program: www.sfu.ca/cstudies/community/index.htm
Lucy LeMare: www.educ.sfu.ca/fri/leMare/