If you can’t get to education – you bring the education to you and that’s exactly what the community of Morley did.
The Early Learning Child Certificate (ELCC) program was a joint venture of the three Bands at Morley – Bearspaw, Chiniki and Wesley. An innovative job creation program carried out at Nakoda College in Morley under the direction of the Bow Valley College and funded by the National Child Benefit Reinvestment (NCBR) Program, nearly 30 students have taken part in the certificate diploma program, with over 90 per cent graduating.
“Today, Stoney Nation reached a milestone,” said Amanda Goodstoney. “All three nations came together and that rarely happens out here, because each nation pursues their different ideas and plans, but this ELCC program was the first project where we had all three bands participating.”
“The program was designed as a home-to-work transitional project to meet the economic and educational needs of a critical mass of women from low-income families with children of the Stoney First Nation to upgrade their skills in child, youth and family care; while simultaneously addressing the needs of providing quality early childhood education for the children in Morley,” program consultant Dr. Rashida Keshavjee said.
“Once we identified what we wanted to pay most attention to and improve lives in that area, we then found out about Bow Valley College. Graciously, we met Becky Kelley who was full of support and understanding and was more than willing to bring her college out to the reserve so that out people could attend,” Goodstoney said.
The overall goal for graduates from the program is to be able to work in childcare facilities, out-of-school programs, youth recreation programs, community programs, family support programs and family resources and/or parent link centres.
“This program gives the graduates significant first steps in creating sustainable early child and youth education, which is expected to become a forerunner and foundation for good quality elementary, middle and high school education,” Keshavjee said.
“We looked at different educational opportunities and our ELCC diploma seemed to be the best fit because it supports families and provides parenting support and daycares here needed trained workers,” said Becky Kelley, Program Coordinator, School of Health, Justice and Human Services at Bow Valley College.
“With the diploma, they have opportunities to move into fields such as early intervention and work in group homes, so it seemed a good fit for all of the community needs. It’s a really good pathway for future education.”
According to Keshavjee, the ELCC program was mostly facilitated with funds from the NCBR and supplemented with support and financial assistance from the Alberta Government and Employment Training Centre. Students in the program were sent out to acquire best practices for early child and youth learning by doing practicums at well accredited institutions of childcare centres outside the reserve in Cochrane, Canmore and Calgary in order to bring back these “best practices” in this field, and bring back “new knowledge” of emotional and psychological development of childcare and their proper developmental growth with regard to education, nutrition and health.
The next portion of the ELCC certificate diploma program will resume this January.
