‘Every family is important:’ Mobile early learning program gets more funding

The federal and provincial governments are putting more money into mobile early learning opportunities in Saskatchewan.

In a media release Tuesday, the governments said they were investing another $405,000 into KidsFirst Regional programming, hiking the total for 2022-23 to $1.2 million.

KidsFirst Regional programs in nine areas — Moose Jaw-Assiniboia, Kindersley, Tisdale, Prince Albert, Saskatoon, Southwest, Regina, Yorkton and Southeast — received $40,000 each. The Lloydminster-Meadow Lake-Battlefords area got $45,000 as it’s a larger region.

The funding is coming from the Canada-Saskatchewan Bi-Lateral Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, 2021-26.

According to the provincial government, KidsFirst Regional travels to communities and provides kids five years of age and under with learning opportunities through programs like take-home literacy kits, story walks and pop-up preschool events.

“Every family is important to us,” Donna Coleman-Trombley, the supervisor for KidsFirst Regional in the Regina-Qu’Appelle area, said in the release. “If you only have 10 children under the age of five in your community, we still want to come to you and provide programming.

“Being able to go out into these rural communities shows these families that their children are important no matter where they live.”

KidsFirst Regional community developers work with families and local partners such as public health, the Early Childhood Intervention Program, family resource centres, and libraries in smaller urban and rural communities.

The provincial government said that in 2022, nearly 16,000 people in 343 communities used the program. Some 8,600 early learning kits and backpacks were handed out across the province, each loaded with activities designed to enhance the development of linguistic, social-emotional, cognitive, fine and gross motor skills.

More information on KidsFirst Regional mobile early learning opportunities is available here.