Good morning.
My name is Sarah Lessard and I am the mother of three little girls who attend a Conseil scolaire FrancoSud francophone school in Calgary. They are in junior kindergarten, grade one and grade three.
This matter inspires me and touches me personally. I'm really pleased that you came here to listen to what our community has to say. I have participated in discussions and conferences, where we always see this shortcoming for early childhood; it is highlighted. I’m truly glad that you're here to listen to us and meet all the partners in the community.
I'm here today representing the Société de la petite enfance et de la famille du Sud de l'Alberta, SPEFSA. Ms. Huard has already talked about support centres for francophones in Alberta. She is our partner in Edmonton, and I am in Calgary.
Our association was founded in 2007 with funding from the Community Action Program for Children (CAPC). Those federal funds are used to support family centres.
Ms. Huard talked a little about support centres. On our side, we had to wait 10 years. In 2016, the Government of Alberta finally recognized that we did not have funding for a support centre. We received funding from the federal government, but none from the provincial government. We had to wait until 2016 to receive funding from the Government of Alberta for the Calgary support centre. SPEFSA truly insisted that we get those funds and the recognition of our support centre designation in Calgary.
Since 2016, we have also received funding to set up projects in the regions. We are in Calgary, but our support centre wants to create a network for the communities in the regions. We have received funding to enable us to provide services in a number of areas in southern Alberta, which is the boundary of the territory we serve. We try to serve families in various regions.
In 2016, when we received just CAPC funding, there were 1,400 participants. In the last two years, since we received more funding from the Government of Alberta for the designation of the support centre, we have doubled our numbers. In two years, I think we have made great strides in early childhood in southern Alberta.
I will explain the services we provide, because I think it's important. Calgary is often the gateway to the francophonie. Families arriving in Calgary do a Google search on “francophone families”. This is often how they find our organization.
We provide the francophone community with child development services, story-reading sessions, family yoga, crafts and many activities to develop all the children's abilities before they start school.
We provide our community with parenting education, which is important for family balance, in the form of “positive parenting practices (PPP)” workshops. Those workshops show families how to set up positive practices. The services are available in most English-speaking communities, but we in Calgary have only two centres providing those services in French. We also provide family support that can take the form of community cooking or prenatal classes, for example.
The information and guidance we provide to families is another aspect of our mandate. They come to us because they do not know anyone and do not understand how the system works. Our role is to guide them in their Calgary and Alberta experiences.
We also have a questionnaire on developmental stages, which is a very important tool. We work with daycares and parents. This questionnaire helps parents know what stage their children are at before they start school.
For example, this may help us realize that a child needs to develop their fine motor skills. Before they start school, we can provide support to our students to guide them towards independence so that they are ready for school.
Furthermore, we provide the only francophone library service available to families in Calgary. This meets one of their great needs. When they come in, they are amazed and are delighted to have the service. Unfortunately, we do not have a lot of funding to operate this service.
Finally, another service focuses on the transmission of language and culture. We are here to support families. At the support centre, we often see families who have just arrived in Calgary and have not been able to get jobs because they do not speak English. They therefore enrol their children in anglophone schools and activities exclusively in English. So we have to tell them that, if they want to stay in Calgary, it is essential that they support the francophonie. It's good to have those activities in English, but we have to explain to parents who come to Alberta that they have to support the francophonie, otherwise it will get lost.