The Revelstoke Child Care Society has partnered with the Human Early Learning Partnership at UBC to improve access to services, programs, and positive experiences for families with young children in Revelstoke, BC.
The early years play a crucial role in shaping a child’s development, and yet, data on the experiences of local families are often lacking, making it difficult for decision makers to address community needs effectively.
To bridge this gap, the Revelstoke Child Care Society (RCCS) teamed up with the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) at UBC to collect population-level data on the social contexts and early experiences of children and their families in Revelstoke, BC. Incorporating data from over 90% of families with toddlers in Revelstoke, the project is enhancing resources and access to services, programs, and positive experiences for families with young children.
“The timing of this project could not have been better. The opportunity to engage in dialogue, reflect, and deepen our understanding of the trends and strengths over time is essential as we consider how our sector and our community can continue to work together to support children and families.”
— Tracy Spannier, Associate Executive Director, Revelstoke Child Care Society
Formed in the early 2000s, this partnership co-led by Tracy Spannier of the RCCS and Dr. Martin Guhn from HELP UBC combined research expertise with community insights, to create meaningful dialogue, collaboration, and collective action. UBC, with its expertise in data analysis and understanding of child well-being trends brought valuable technical skills to the project, while the RCCS contributed front-line knowledge of families’ experiences and an established cross-sector network of early year experts.
Through a series of workshops between May 2021 and March 2022, researchers from HELP presented their findings on child and youth health and well-being, fostering a space for dialogue and reflection among the cross-sector network.
On April 26 and 27, 2022, the project culminated in a community meeting where the collaboration’s research findings were shared with stakeholders from various sectors including education and health. Furthermore, the project reinforced that collective, evidence-based action in communities can make a difference for families and young children, in terms of their wellbeing, health, education, and social connectedness.
Following the publication of their final report, the project partners have continued to ensure ongoing discussions and plan to reconvene to understand how the report has been received across the extended community network and whether any actions have been taken in response.
This project received support from the 2021 Community-University Engagement Support (CUES) Fund.
See below for project details and a Q&A with project co-leads Dr Martin Guhn and Tracy Spannier.
Project Details
Title: Understanding families’ experiences to support community-level decision making
Co-leads: Tracy Spannier, Associate Executive Director, Revelstoke Child Care Society, and Martin Guhn, Faculty Assistant Professor/Interim Director, School of Population and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine.
Duration: April 2021 to March 2022
Learn more
- Read how Revelstoke Used 20 Years of Data to Strengthen Connection
- View the Revelstoke Community Profile for a summary of the project findings
Click here to read the full project description
Experiences during the early years set the foundation for life-long learning, social relationships, health, and wellbeing. Decision makers in communities benefit from systematic information on the experiences of local families to inform community-level decision making, address needs, and build on existing community resources, however, such data commonly do not exist. To address this gap, a research team at the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) partnered with early years professionals and families in Revelstoke, BC, to capture the social contexts and early experiences of children and their families.
Having collected responses from over 90% of Revelstoke families with toddlers, the project engaged in knowledge exchange between the university and community, drew connection between the data and local knowledge of community experiences, and set priorities for future supports. Such support would specifically be aimed at enhancing resources and access to services, programs, and positive experiences for families with young children. This project deepened a longstanding community-university collaboration between the HELP and Revelstoke teams.
Q&A with project co-leads Dr. Martin Guhn and Tracy Spannier
Why is this project important and how does it support Revelstoke Child Care Society goals?
Guhn: This project facilitated critical dialogue between the university and community partners related to the health, well-being, and experiences of children and families in Revelstoke. By creating space for knowledge exchange to take place in community and across sectors, population level data and expert knowledge were brought together to paint a more detailed picture of strengths over time as well as opportunities to enhance community-based resources and supports for children and families.
Spannier: This project has provided an opportunity to reflect on the trends and impacts over time. The RCCS is able to support the early years sector, Revelstoke Early Childhood Development Committee and stakeholders with a deeper understanding of the resources and supports that will make a difference. At a time when available resource opportunities have shifted, this knowledge directly impacts our collective priorities and decisions.
What strengths did each party (UBC partner + community partner) bring to the project?
Guhn: The UBC partner brought the technical skills to analyze and examine meaningful trends in child well-being and social and community context factors over time. The community partner brought front-line knowledge of families’ experiences as well as an established cross-sector early years network by which to discuss, plan, and organize collective action in response to research findings.
During the project, what opportunities did participants have to teach, learn, or do research?
Guhn: This project involved a series of workshops in which HELP researchers presented findings on child and youth health and well-being over time and across the early life course. As part of these workshops, community-based early years experts across sectors had the opportunity to ask questions, reflect on findings, and share their own experiences related to the data. This allowed for meaningful knowledge exchange across all participants with equal opportunities to teach and learn.
What was your favorite outcome or experience from the project?
Guhn: The final community meeting in Revelstoke during which the overall collaboration/research findings were presented to the community members, and then discussed. The meeting was the culmination of a series of online/zoom meetings during which researchers shared empirical data about the community of Revelstoke, with a focus on understanding ‘social connectedness’ in Revelstoke. The final community meetings included community stakeholders from education, health, and more, and the key insights from the series of analyses were shared.
The discussions with community members highlighted that Revelstoke had a history of 20+ years of working on creating community assets for building connections and social relationships and assets for families with (young children). The efforts had been driven/motivated by research presentations of Clyde Hertzman, co-founder of HELP UBC. Now, 20+ years later, our data indicated that this work, informed by research, and led by community rooted in principles of equity and universal access, is seemingly bearing fruit. It was the first time we captured this type of community story over such a long-time span, with such deliberate focus and reiterative process.
Can you share a few lessons you learned during your project?
Guhn: I learned during the project that collective, evidence-based action in communities can make a difference for families and young children, in terms of their wellbeing, health, education, and social connectedness. Moreover, community-based, evidence-informed work requires access to research evidence (such as HELP’s local population data), with a network of professionals that have access to resources and the authority to make decisions. It is also important to have a joint focus/vision that prioritizes (in this case) wellbeing, health, and education of children as an investment in community now and for the future. Finally, meaningful research questions need to be developed out of the community context and with a focus on ‘what actions have a positive effect on children’s well-being’?
What is next for this project?
Guhn: The university and community partners have ensured ongoing communication and plan to reconvene in a formal meeting to understand how the final report has been received across the extended community network and whether any actions have taken place in response.