At the start of this new year, we would like to take the time to reflect on the small pleasures of 2023, but above all to celebrate our successes and adventures! We would also like to remember how, together, we have risen to the challenges we have faced. Here is a retrospective that highlights the initiatives and efforts of the staff who, day after day, make the Carrefour francophone what it is today.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this year’s outdoor projects. Thanks to your support, we are ready for a new year.

Highlights of 2023!

The Scène des tout petits childcare center becomes one with nature exploration. Located in Sudbury’s Robinson Lake neighbourhood, the center has privileged access to a municipal forest behind the École Hélène Gravel.

2023 marks the first year that the center’s children have had access to this forest. The management of École Hélène Gravel and the Conseil Scolaire du Grand Nord agreed to the installation of a gate in the fence, allowing them to discover this, previously inaccessible, space. The support and determination of Daniel Barrette, a well-known community player and former director of the Rainbow Routes association, helped make this dream a reality for the center’s children.

Families at the center who live in the neighborhood also appreciate being able to pick up their children directly from the forest, avoiding the traffic and hustle and bustle of the street.

Every day is an excuse to take a walk in the forest!

Sudbury welcomes Ontario's first French-speaking cohort of the Forest School Practitioner program!

With the collaboration of Collège Boréal and the child and nature alliance, the Carrefour francophone was able to host the first French-language training session in Ontario. The Nature School Practitioner program is becoming highly sought-after in the field, providing the skills and knowledge to feel confident in outdoor education.

A car in a playground: a first in the country!

The biggest dream of the Boréal des tout-petits team in 2020 was “to bring a car to the playground that would make the kids so happy!”

At Carrefour francophone, our mission is to make everyone’s dreams come true!

We pulled out our magic wand (and rolled up our sleeves a bit) and thanks to funding from the City of Greater Sudbury and the collaboration of Collège Boréal, this dream became a reality.

Pierre Harrison of PLAYLearnThink fitted out and secured the vehicle offered by Collège Boréal’s mechanics program. He kept some of the electrical circuits, such as the windshield wipers and turn signals, working, much to the children’s delight!

Learn more about adventure playgrounds here.

Did you know?

It is the sun’s ultraviolet rays that enable the human body to synthesize vitamin D. Vitamin D is essential for the proper functioning of the immune system and the absorption of calcium, as well as benefiting the nervous system, blood circulation and muscle strength. Exposure to the sun (face and hands) for around 15 minutes a day (without sun protection), 3 or 4 days a week would be sufficient, but 30 to 40 minutes for darker skins. Yet another good reason to face up to this winter’s chill and go for a walk in the forest or the great outdoors!

The Carrefour francophone would like to say thank you to

Our project partners: PLAYLearnThink, Collège Boréal, Centre Louis Riel; our research partners: Centre d’innovation sociale pour l’enfant et la famille and our funder: Employment and Social Development Canada.