One in five children in BC lives in poverty. How do we turn this around? Many believe the place to start is with early childhood development. United Way’s My Neighbourhood, My Future is a new initiative aimed at helping children get the best start in life. We are focusing time, energy and investments over a period of five years in two pilot neighbourhoods: “Coquitlam River” in Port Coquitlam, and “Guildford West” in Surrey. Read about it in The Vancouver Sun. The neighbourhoods were selected because the neighbourhoods have the capacity for an initiative like this, there are good strong partnerships already in place, there are high birth rates, and most importantly, stubbornly high rates of child vulnerability. Vulnerability is measured using the Early Development Instrument (EDI). We are working with UBC’s Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP). HELP has just completed wave 5 of EDI data for the province of B.C. Find out how your neighbourhood is doing! United Way British Columbia has been researching and investing in early childhood for decades – last year alone (fiscal 2012/2013), we invested $4.8 million into programs and services for children in the Lower Mainland. If you live in Port Coquitlam and want to find out how to help shape this community investment initiative, contact the community planner, Lucie Honey-Ray.
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