The Forest and Nature Daycare Project, recipient of the early childhood innovation program, welcomes the Minister of Families, Karina Gould

In 2020, Carrefour francophone submitted a research project proposal to Employment and Social Development Canada aimed at documenting the benefits of an early childhood centre (E.C.C.) in the forest. Today, we are happy to announce that Carrefour francophone is benefiting from 3 years of funding under the Early Learning and Childcare Innovation Program!

This is very good news for Carrefour francophone; this support will allow us to extend the project to other early childhood centres in our network and in the region!

By supporting this innovative project, the ministry recognizes the value of this type of outdoor educational approach and encourages their development. In addition to documenting the benefits for the children and staff of the centres, the team is committed over the course of three years to helping the centres in the Greater Sudbury region and the francophone agencies in the province who wish to undertake a similar process of education by nature within their centres.

During this mandate, Carrefour francophone will collaborate with the applied research department of Collège Boréal as well as Pierre Harrison, from PlayLearnThink, as a consultant. The research part of the project will be based on observations made in the Boréal des tout-petits and Scène des tout-petits centres.

A Nice Visit to Mark the Occasion

On October 11, Carrefour francophone’s team met with the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Karina Gould for the occasion. During the press conference announcing the funding, the Minister was able to discover the forest early childhood centre at Boréal des tout-petits.

It was a great opportunity to remember the origins and reasons for our Forest and Nature Daycare project, and the progress made since its start. Here are a few words from the general director of Carrefour francophone, Stéphane Gauthier:

“In recent years, the outdoors has taken a growing and fundamental place in the extracurricular and preschool programming of the Carrefour francophone. And in a special way here at the Boréal des tout-petits E.C.C.

Since 2019, groups of children have been out in the forest daily thanks to the partnership with Collège Boréal and the proximity of forests.

During this time, Carrefour francophone’s team got to work on developing nature-based programming, thinking about effective and concrete systems to facilitate outings in all seasons, and documenting the benefits for children and staff.”

“The observations discovered so far are as obvious as they are surprising: children who are more focused, more able to play, show fewer behavioural problems and sharpened senses, and are overall more curious about the surrounding life.

Today, Carrefour francophone dares to ask the question: what if our educational programs were not designed with the human being as the centre of the world? What if our programs were better integrated into the life around us and recognized the links between natural environments more? How would this change influence early childhood pedagogy? What would be the impact on our educational approaches and environments, our relationships with the community, with parents, our recruitment and engagement strategies?

The start of the pilot project dates back to the summer of 2020. I would like to thank educational advisor Céline Kerampran, who is its first and main guide, Collège Boréal, and the ESDC program for their support.”

As you can imagine, we have many ideas, and we are working hard! We can’t wait to tell you more!

A Special Thank You to Our Partners!

We’d like to thank our two partners, the Centre Louis Riel and Collège Boréal for supporting our initiatives. More activities will take place throughout the year, so please keep following us.