Healthy Child Manitoba

Community Capacity and Knowledge Exchange

Capacity building and knowledge exchange is an important component of the Healthy Child Manitoba Strategy. Facilitated through the Healthy Child Manitoba Office, work related to promoting community capacity and knowledge exchange includes consultation, education, training, supervision and technical expertise to assist civic, academic and government communities.  Specific capacity building and knowledge exchange activities include:

• planning, implementing and evaluating programs and services for children and families;
• measuring and monitoring outcomes at the community level;
• developing local best practice models for the enhancement of family and community resilience;
• sharing knowledge on children’s development with communities.

Committees

The Healthy Child Manitoba Office has participated and supports several local, provincial, and national committees, including:

• Canadian Council for Learning (CCL) Early Childhood Learning Knowledge Centre – Directing Committee and Health and Learning Knowledge Centre – Directing Committee
• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) – Institute for Human Development, Child and Youth Health (IHDCYH) – Institute Advisory Board
• Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network (CLLRNet) – National Literacy Strategy Planning Committee, Renewal Steering Committee, and Research Management Committee
• Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development (CEECD) – National Advisory Committee;
• Community Data Network
• Council for Early Child Development – National Expert Advisory Committee
• Federal/Provincial/Territorial (F/P/T) Early Childhood Development (ECD) Working Group and F/P/T Committee for ECD Knowledge, Information, and Effective Practices
• F/P/T Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) Working Group
• F/P/T Intersectoral Healthy Living Network and its Committees
• Human Resources and Social Development Canada – Understanding the Early Years (UEY) – Provincial/Territorial Advisory Committee
• Invest in Kids Foundation – Board of Advisors
• Many Hands, One Voice (co-led by the Canadian Pediatric Society and the major national Aboriginal organizations) – Advisory Committee
• Statistics Canada’s Aboriginal Children’s Survey – Technical Advisory Group  Statistics Canada’s National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth – Steering Committee

Conferences

The Healthy Child Manitoba Office contributes to many local, provincial, national, and international conferences. Some recent examples include:

• Growing Great Kids International Summit, held in Kentucky, USA (August 2007);
• Bringing People and Evidence Together Conference, sponsored by the Government of Saskatchewan and the Canadian Council on Learning, held in Regina, SK (September 2007);
• Manitoba Institute of Child Health (MICH) Research Day, sponsored by MICH, and held in Winnipeg, MB (October 2007);
• Early Years Conference held in Vancouver, BC (February 2008);
• Banff International Conference on Behavioural Science, entitled Effective Early Learning Programs: Research, Policy and Practice, sponsored by CEECD, CLLRNet, and ECLKC and held in Banff, AB (March 2008)
• The Early Development Imperative, sponsored by the Council of Early Childhood Development and HCM, held in Winnipeg, MB (November 2009);

 

The National Child Day Forum

The National Child Day Forum, hosted by Healthy Child Manitoba with community partners, has become an annual tradition providing an opportunity for community partners from across the province to gather together to learn about best practices and the latest research on early child development.

Find the presentations from past forums here: http://www.gov.mb.ca/healthychild/ncd/index.html

 

Parent Child Coalitions

Healthy Child Manitoba builds and supports community capacity through its community-based parent child coalitions.  Manitoba’s 26 Parent Child Coalitions represent the geographical and cultural communities across the province.  Coalitions bring together community partners such as parents, schools and school divisions, early childhood educators, health and social service professionals and other community organizations.  As part of Healthy Child Manitoba’s commitment to evidence-based decision making and knowledge exchange, community-level research on early child hood development – gathered through the EDI (Early Development Instrument) – is shared and reviewed with coalitions, providing them with biennial data on the unique strengths and needs of their community.  In turn, Coalitions support existing activities and initiate new activities that reflect each community’s diversity and unique needs.

For more information on Parent Child Coalitions: http://www.gov.mb.ca/healthychild/parentchild/index.html

For more information on the EDI:
http://www.gov.mb.ca/healthychild/edi/index.html