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KidsFirst: a provincial early childhood intervention

program with a community approach

What is KidsFirst?

KidsFirst is a federally-funded, provincially-run intervention for parents (such as returning to school or finding a job).
program launched in 2002 that provides support and
services to vulnerable families with young children (aged 0-5) Home visitors share information with parents about
in Saskatchewan. It is offered in nine areas of the province programs and events in which they can participate, and
that were identified as having high levels of need when the help them access services in the community, such as early
program was established. There are KidsFirst programs in learning, child care, and specialized services for children, and
Meadow Lake, Moose Jaw, Nipawin, Northern Saskatchewan, education, mental health and addictions services for parents.
North Battleford, Yorkton and selected neighbourhoods in They also help parents access housing, transportation and
Prince Albert, Regina and Saskatoon. food. They organize social and learning events where KidsFirst
families can interact.
KidsFirst includes components such as identifying and
assessing families that might be considered at-risk or Home visitors focus on the positive, building on each family’s
vulnerable, and connecting them to existing community strengths to build parents’ self-esteem and confidence.
supports and programs. Clients enter the program They are considered the link between KidsFirst parents and
during pregnancy or after the birth of their child. Factors community services whose mandate is to support children and
determining their eligibility include low maternal education families. KidsFirst is a paraprofessional home visiting program,
levels, mental health issues, financial instability, substance where lay home visitors receive support from professionals.
issues or other risk factors.
As part of a three-year evaluation of KidsFirst, profiles of
KidsFirst uses intensive home visiting to support children each KidsFirst community were developed that describe
living in very vulnerable circumstances so that they can be each community, program implementation and operation
nurtured and supported by healthy, well-functioning families. in that community. The Community Profiles are available at
Home visitors work to build capacity in families, promote www.kidskan.ca/node/170.
healthy child development and facilitate goal achievement

Saskatchewan KidsFirst Program Evaluation (2007-10): Community Profiles www.kidSKAN.ca/KidsFirst 1


Local approach to program delivery The sites have many things in common. Most notably,
they have a large population of young children that
There are nine KidsFirst program sites in the province. Each were determined to be at risk when the program was
program has the same goals and objectives, and connects being developed in 2001. There are typically many health
vulnerable families to needed services and supports indicators associated with negative outcomes in children:
using intensive home visiting. While the Early Childhood poverty; single-parent families; low birth weights; and
Development Unit in the Ministry of Education oversees the infant hospitalizations. However, the communities do vary
program, it is delivered locally through contracts with local considerably—some are in core neighbourhoods in cities of
agencies. What this means is that the program works closely 200,000 people, others in towns of 5,000 people, and KidsFirst
with a range of community organizations, and provides North serves 13 communities spread over a geographic area
services in a way that is sensitive to that community’s context. that covers almost half the province.

This fact sheet is part of a series describing our three year Each site has a Program Manager responsible for that site,
evaluation of KidsFirst, funded by the Canadian Population who works with the home visiting supervisor, home visitors
Health Initiative, and the Government of Saskatchewan, with and other staff, and a Management Committee that provides
some additional support from MITACS, and the College of guidance. Management Committees have representatives
Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. The evaluation from many local organizations and institutions, including
was led by Nazeem Muhajarine, lead of the Healthy Children public and Catholic school divisions, Social Services and
Research Team at the Saskatchewan Population Health and other provincial government departments, health authorities,
Evaluation Research Unit, in partnership with staff from the tribal councils and Métis organizations, regional intersectoral
Early Childhood Development Unit in the Saskatchewan committees, child care associations, municipal governments,
Ministry of Education, and KidsFirst program staff. A full list of police and community organizations.
team members is found in the reports.
Local businesses also play a role by helping support programs
The following reports were produced as part of this evaluation: by providing food, transportation and other services.
• Evaluation Framework KidsFirst program managers and staff of the Early Childhood
• Community Profiles Development Unit meet regularly throughout the year to
• Focused Literature Review share, plan and collaborate.
• Using Theory to Plan and Evaluate KidsFirst
• Report of the Qualitative Study This kind of program operation requires a great deal of
• Report of the Quantitative Study collaboration between KidFirst sites and local agencies.
• Summary of Findings and Recommendations. At one site, the agencies involved all meet once a week
to talk about the families they share. Another site holds
Reports and fact sheets can all be read online or downloaded management meetings throughout the year, inviting
from www.kidSKAN.ca, the Saskatchewan Knowledge to parents to the table to help in the planning.
Action Network for Early Childhood Development. Go to www.
kidSKAN.ca/KidsFirst, or click on “KidsFirst” under the Projects Culture is key to recruitment, program
menu on the front page. For more information, contact Fleur delivery
Macqueen Smith, fleur.macqueensmith@usask.ca, 306-966-
2957, Knowledge Transfer Manager of the Healthy Children While the program is aimed at all vulnerable families in KidsFirst
Research Team in SPHERU. communities, it is especially important for Aboriginal families.
For one thing, the Aboriginal population is expected to grow

In some countries, it is normal that a husband hits a child or a woman, beats them,
or something. But here they have to learn that is not possible, [they] do not allow the
father and parents to do that to their children, abuse them or hit them, or to their wife.
And I had some problems... But, men they learn fast, and women also. They’re very smart
and they’re very, very fast to accept Canadian law … [They] say “OK, don’t touch me! I’m
going to call 911!” — home visitor

2 Saskatchewan KidsFirst Program Evaluation (2007-10): Community Profiles www.kidSKAN.ca/KidsFirst


proportionally, so that by 2017 one in three children in the FASD, and other cognitive disorders, and experience fewer
province will have Aboriginal ancestry. As well, the poverty crises, of shorter duration, but may need help in adapting
rates for Aboriginal children are relatively high—50 per cent to Canadian parenting approaches. Here, the curriculum is
versus 19.2 per cent for non-Aboriginal children at the time delivered using relevant literacy approaches, as well as other
KidsFirst started. Reaching out to vulnerable Aboriginal families means such as cooking classes in community kitchens using
who could benefit from the program is important. large picture cookbooks.

One challenge is the legacy of Advocacy is also an important


the residential school system for role. At one location, KidsFirst was
Aboriginal people in Canada, able to bring housing concerns to
through which children were the local government’s attention
removed from their homes following a house fire in which
and communities. As a result two children died. At another,
of this, some Aboriginal people KidsFirst and other organizations
to view programs like KidsFirst worked with the local
with suspicion, as something that government to develop a bylaw
could sever ties between children to regulate property standards.
and their parents and extended
families. It takes time and a creative
approach to build the trusting
relationships needed for KidsFirst to
be successful.

Sites use various means to introduce potential participants


They’ve grown up with parents that have
to the KidsFirst program. One site uses “spa days” where
KidsFirst mothers and potential clients can get manicures and not been able to practice healthy
pedicures. Another site has devised a policy to do whatever
it takes in the first three months to keep a family engaged communication, being in a residential
in KidsFirst, whether this means finding them food boxes or
dairy coupons or setting up transportation.
school environment, because you have to
just, most of the time, stuff your feelings
KidsFirst sites have involved local Aboriginal people in many
ways. In some sites, First Nations and Métis agencies handle inside of you … You’re not allowed to
program delivery, such as home visiting. In KidsFirst North,
there are retreats for families where Elders help young
talk about feelings and they’re not being
parents to re-connect with land- and lake-based activities, nurtured so, as a result of that, when they
and to learn traditions and holistic approaches to parenting
and family life. Cree and Métis activities are incorporated into get out of residential school almost all
the curriculum and family activities. These include fishing,
berry picking and wild mushroom harvesting. of them have had addictions problems,
low self esteem as well as other problems
One site focused on integrating First Nations healing
into program practices, in another the area tribal council with anger and things like that … We
held sewing and moss bag making groups for KidsFirst
participants, and another offers Aboriginal Head Start have a generation of parents now that are
programs and Aboriginal parenting classes. Even when
in our program who have not had healthy
it comes to promoting the program, KidsFirst uses many
methods, such as Aboriginal radio stations, print materials, parenting, and they haven’t necessarily
and the “moccasin telegraph” (informal word of mouth).
gotten the nurturing they need so they’re
Aboriginal tradition is by no means the only cultural context,
as the program also serves many refugee and immigrant
basically starting over again.
families. The program appears to work well for these families, — home visitor
who reportedly have a lower incidence of drug/alcohol abuse,

Saskatchewan KidsFirst Program Evaluation (2007-10): Community Profiles www.kidSKAN.ca/KidsFirst 3


Examples of local approaches

To illustrate the approach different program sites have taken, community kitchen, community gardens, and a parenting
a few examples are given below from the Community Profiles program for fathers.
of each program site developed as part of the evaluation.
For more complete descriptions, see the full report at Prevention of FASD and substance abuse are important goals
www.kidskan.ca/node/170. in Prince Albert, so KidsFirst funds were used to continue
Baby SAFE (Substance Abuse Free Environment). This
In Meadow Lake, KidsFirst has supported families and early weekly program began in 1994 with the aim of preventing
childhood development directly and indirectly in a number FASD and substance among pregnant
of ways, such as holding “community baby women. The community is also noted for
showers”, sponsoring a “Come Read with its Family Connections program, which
Me” program for families and developing through partnerships is able to support and
a partnership with a local taxi company organized many family support groups and
to provide transportation for medical, activities, including classes on cooking and
school, work or other necessary trips for nutrition, anger management, fitness, and
program clients. parenting.

In Moose Jaw, KidsFirst developed a number To respond to the challenge of high home
of early learning opportunities (Head Starts, visitor turnover, KidsFirst Regina has come
literacy programs) through partnerships. up with strategies to improve staff retention. These have
Because of the presence already of a number of preschool included participating in a provincial wage review, developing
programs in the community, the focus has remained on early self care and safety protocols for staff, establishing family
learning and development. friendly workplaces, and offering support and training with
mental health and addictions teams.
Nipawin, with low staff turnover, has a tight team. One reason
is that staff is centralized. They all work in the same office When KidsFirst families enter the program, in-depth
area, and this has allowed for regular debriefings among assessments are conducted. In Saskatoon in 2003, because
counsellors, home visiting supervisors and home visitors. of a high volume of pending assessments, KidsFirst trained
home visitors themselves to conduct assessments which
KidsFirst North has modified the questionnaire for its prenatal previously had been done by the program facilitator. In
screening to keep the number of questions to a minimum, 2007, after experiencing challenges with timely completion
with a focus on drug and alcohol use, both at present or at and comprehensiveness, a nurse assessor with the Healthy
any time during pregnancy. Mother Healthy Baby program in the Saskatoon Health
Region was contracted to conduct assessments.
The mental health and addictions counselors in North
Battleford work in a non-traditional manner by accompanying KidsFirst Yorkton has woven parent supports into all its
home visitors on family visits. Through this example of program components. This has resulted in services such as
creative outreach, they are able to provide services and group nights, literacy programs, a community kitchen, a
support directly to home visiting staff. The community fathers’ group, infant massage, a number of training programs
also has a number of home-grown programs, such as a for parents, and a preschool playland.

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