NACY e-Digest - The voice for child & youth issues in Canada

NACY NEWS

Vancouver Child & Youth Think Tank Session Update

NACY has been conducting a series of Think Tank sessions across Canada. (see highlights from Ottawa Think Tank & Atlantic Canada Think Tank). Our forth one, held in Vancouver, BC on February 16, was yet another success as we gathered over 40 colleagues. Stay tuned for the highlights report.

The theme - Inform, Inspire, Innovate - has aimed to assist the sector in developing a series of strategies and best practices for dealing with and overcoming organizational and sectoral challenges. These sessions have provided a unique opportunity for child and youth leaders to gather and to take stock of the sector in Canada, to share their knowledge and experience, and to provide guidance and advice that will be shared nationally on how to survive and grow during challenging times. If you are interested in learning more about the project, email us at: [email protected].

Brown Bag Lunch with Dr. Paul Kershaw

Dr. Kershaw has been traveling across the country asking Canadians to carefully consider what can be done to address the reality that Canada has become a country in which it is harder to raise a family today than it was a generation ago. With Lynell Anderson, he released 10 reports last October --one for each province-- which show that incomes have stalled for young Canadian couples even though far more young women contribute employment income than they did in the 1970s. With stalled household incomes, young families must pay for higher housing prices. This leaves a generation raising young children that is squeezed for time at home, squeezed for income after housing, and squeezed for services like child care.

NACY hosted a policy dialogue with Dr. Kershaw and Ottawa-based colleagues on February 8. He better informed us about the declining standard of living for the generation raising young kids, and asked us to consider why UNICEF ranks Canada among the weakest countries when it comes to investing in policy for families with young children. After diagnosing the decline in the standard of living, Kershaw presented a New Deal for Families that proposes three policy changes: New Mom and New Dad Benefits; $10/day child care; and Flex-Time.

If you missed it, you will be able to view the dialogue shortly once we have posted the Video. In the meantime, you can connect with Dr. Paul Kershaw by emailing: [email protected].

Sector Monitor Report

NACY partnered with Imagine Canada on the fifth Sector Monitor. The results are out and the report speaks to demands remaining high and many nonprofits and charities continuing to experience difficulty carrying out their mission. For additional information on the state of the charitable and nonprofit sector you can download the latest Sector Monitor report .

Join NACY's SuperSearch Network

Within our Taking Stock project, one activity is to provide sector colleagues with a more robust NACY website to: share project and sector solutions; provide a central access site for the child and youth sector; and profile a catalogue of child and youth sector nonprofit agency best practices. The NACY website has been updated and enhanced with additional features, such as the SuperSearch engine.

NACY's SuperSearch feature enables users to search through child and youth sector and other relevant websites using just one central search engine. It is a one-stop solution to search for useful information and resources on issues that impact (or are relevant to) the sector specifically and the nonprofit world in general.

NACY is asking organizations to join our SuperSearch network. For more information about NACY's SuperSearch we invite you to read the factsheet. If you are interested in joining our SuperSearch network please fill out the form.

Call for NACY e-Digest Contribution

A vital part of NACY's mandate is its unique ability to bring together a wide variety of child and family serving organizations. This monthly e-Digest presents an excellent opportunity for NACY's members to communication with one another and to keep fellow activits updated on their organization's activities.

Whether you are preparing a press release, applying for governmetn grant, or planning a workshop or conference, NACY wants to hear about i! This e-Digest is here to profile the invaluable work of NACY's members. Please send your contributions to [email protected].

Child & Youth Sector News

Canada's history of the never-was national child care program
In this edition of Know thy History: Looking back on child care, we look back at the three major attempts by federal governments to develop a national child care strategy for Canada.

Open letter to Prime Minister Harper re: the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB)
The Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada and Campaign 2000 call on the Harper government to redirect the $2.5 billion annual UCCB fund to early childhood education and care programs and to the National Child Benefit for low and modest income families. The groups note that high quality ECEC and eradicating child poverty have well-document economic and social benefits, while the UCCB expenditure does not. Read the Open Letter.

Canada ranks low on child poverty among OECD countries

A new report, Social Justice in the OECD - How do member states compare?, confirms that Canada still ranks poorly on child poverty among rich nations at 24th out of 31 countries. Not surprisingly, Denmark, Finland and Norway are the top three in terms of low child and family poverty. See the poverty reduction section, pp. 18 - 21.

New UNICEF resource

Communicating with Children is a new resource from UNICEF to support child-serving organizations in age-appropriate and child-friendly communication with children and young people. It draws on UNICEF's global experience in communication for development. Effective communication is a two-way process for sharing ideas and knowledge. The resource presents four central principles for producing communication for children, each supported by guidelines, and maps the developmental characteristics of children at different ages to consider in designing child-friendly communications. We illustrate the principles with positive examples from a range of countries, media and age groups.

CWLC Call for Nominations and AGM Notice of Annual General Meeting

CWLC will be having its Annual General Meeting on Friday, March 23, 2012 in Ottawa, ON. You can download the Annual General Meeting Guest Registration Form to confirm your participation at the AGM. CWLC is requesting nominations to the Board of Directors for a term beginning in March 2012. There are six (6) vacancies to fill at that time. Download the Call for Nominations Form.

Privacy Commissioner of Canada launches new tools

The Privacy Commissioner of Canada launched a series of new tools to help young people understand privacy risks associated with online activities and help them better protect their information online.

BC child care advocates in Geneva to complain to UN

Frustrated with a lack of development on provincial and national childcare programs, advocates are taking their concerns above the British Columbian and Canadian governments and going straight to the United Nations. (Read more)

Ken Dryden Scholarship ... Deadline March 2nd 2012

Ken Dryden Scholarships are awarded to select young people, currently or formerly in the care of the Canadian child welfare system, who demonstrate great achievement and promise. Each scholarship covers up to $3,000 or 80% of the cost of tuition and fees, whichever is less, and is renewable annually.

The Vanier Institue of the Family's new publications

Transition Magazine on Work and Family, Fascinating Families on family and cultural traditions, and
Just the Facts on Random Acts of Kindness Week.

Canadians want more child-care funding: Poll

According to a McAllister Opinion Research poll, the majority of Canadians think the feds should invest more money into making it easier for Canadians to start and raise families.
85% of Canadians want to spend more time with their families
60% want the government to enact policy changes that make it easier to raise a family
66% support a subsidized $10-per-day daycare program and
60% said they would "vote for a politician who has publicly committed to fighting for better government policies for families with young children."

Girl Guides bulletin

Read the Winter 2012 issue of GuidingMatters to find out what's been happening in Guiding acroos Canada and for a sneak peek at what's to come.

BC Council for Families Newsletter

Read more about Is BC Doing Enough for Kids? and how Blogging helps teens with socio-emotional difficulties.

OTHER NEWS

New tool provides easy access to charitable information - CharityFocus.ca

In March of 2010, a private members' bill titled Bill C-470 received a second reading in the House of Commons. This bill proposed to cap salaries in the charitable sector. The bill eventually died on the table due to a federal election, but the issue of transparency in the charitable and non-profit sector has not. Read more

Nonprofit Newswire

Legal Obligations Related to Accessibility (ONTARIO)

The Accessibility Standards for Customer Service came into effect on January 1, 2008 and is the first standard developed under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). It sets out the obligations for nonprofits to provide goods and services in a way that is accessible to people with disabilities. All nonprofits in Ontario that have one or more employee (even if they are part-time) must comply with the Standard by January 1, 2012. Those with 20+ staff also have additional reporting requirements. (Read more)

Canada's first online micro-volunteering community

An entirely nonprofit, grassroots community, supported by Koodo,koodonation.com allows individuals and Canadian charities to work together where a huge percentage of Canadians spend their time - online - with the concept of microvolunteering. Microvolunteering gives web savvy Canadians the opportunity to help Canadian not-for-profit organizations, right from their computer, in as little as 15 minutes. With microvolunteering, volunteering becomes a purely online-activity which can be done anytime the microvolunteer has a spare moment: before work; during a study break; or simply on a free evening at home.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

First National Parental Mental Health Conference. First International Young Carers Congress, Third International World Congress on Children of Parents with Mental Illness

Vancouver, British Columbia - May 6-8, 2012

www.interprofessional.ubc.ca

International Social Service Assembly and Conference

Banff, AB - May 23-25, 2012

www.issbanff2012.com

Models of Early Childhood Services

Montreal, QC - June 5-6, 2012

What does it take to implement effective early childhood programs in Canada or in another country? How can countries maintain and fund these programs? What are the challenges met and the lessons learned?

Through keynote presentations, workshops and discussions, discover the challenges that governments and foundations of Canada, New Zealand, Finland, Brazil, Ireland and Great Britain have faced while implementing best ECD practices. The conference Website will soon be available. For more information, visit www.excellence-earlychildhood.ca and www.skc-ecd.ca.

EUSARF 2012 - "All our children: positive experiences, successful outcomes for looked after and other vulnerable children"

Thistle Hotel, Glasgow - September 4-7, 2012

This conference aims to bring together researchers, practitioners, managers and policy makers, to address topical issues facing vulnerable children and young people, and their families. The programme will highlight three overarching themes: perspectives of children and young people; organisational change and effective intervention. The call for papers will be available shortly and they will be accepting abstract submissions from the 31st January. www.eusarf2012.org

The National Alliance for Children and Youth (NACY)

is a nonprofit umbrella organization which brings national organizations

together in a collaborative network dedicated to enhancing

the well-being of children and youth in Canada.