Facilities that promote healthy child development by offering a variety of activities, resources and information for parents/caregivers and children from birth to age six. Families are encouraged to drop in or may participate in a variety of scheduled activities and programs such as playgroups; early learning, parenting and life skills instruction; nutrition programs; and toy libraries. Outreach services and programs for expectant couples may also be included.

[ View Programs and Services (14) | Related Topics ]

Programs that provide a wide variety of social services that are designed to support the healthy development of families, improve family interaction skills and help fragile families to resolve their problems at a pre-crisis stage before they become unmanageable. Services may be centre-based or provided on an outreach basis to families who are initially reluctant to seek support and generally target the specific needs of a particular community. Included may be self-sufficiency programs which help families break the cycle of poverty by addressing the barriers to self-sufficiency; early child development and school success programs; programs which address the needs of teen parents; programs which target parents at risk for becoming abusive; programs for families with children who have special developmental needs and programs that focus on the maternal and child health care needs of first-time, expectant women whose babies are at high risk for low birth weight and infant mortality.

[ View Programs and Services (3) | Related Topics ]