Project Overview

2018- 2025

($2,480,134 + $20,000 for LOI phase + $1,521,407 from partner organisations)

The expanded PG project provides new insights in 3 ways:

• First, we will extend our longitudinal data collection with the existing group of participants (from the Cohort 1 PDG sample), in order to compare experiences across the early childhood and school systems of services.
  
• Second, we are recruiting a new cohort of 2-year olds (across the same communities), to compare experiences of services 3 years after the Ontario government has implemented multiple policy strategies, and examine whether these changes have had an impact in those communities.
  
• Third, the new cohort of participants will be expanded to include three new communities, Comox Valley (BC), Yellowknife (NWT), and Brandon (MB) where governments have similar policy goals for early years services to Ontario. These new communities will help us to understand varied federal and provincial policy contexts.
  
• Finally, the expanded partnership (PG) will include an International Advisory Committee with leading experts in early childhood disability theory and practice as well as a Youth Advisory committee in order to engage the understanding of children themselves.

2016-2017

($25,000)

Embedding Indigenous perspectives in early childhood education, care, and intervention.

The knowledge synthesis project aimed to identify Indigenous approaches to early intervention by synthesizing research and theory from:

• Academic and grey literature, as well as reports from Indigenous community organizations;
• With data already collected and analysed from Indigenous parents and other stakeholders through the IECSS project
• Analysis from key Indigenous community members including the District of Timiskaming Elders’ Council
• We released our Indigenous Findings Video.

2014-2018

($199,855 + $305,369 from partner organisations)

• The PDG was funded from 2015 to 2018, but the work conducted under this constellation of research started in 2013 with consultation with communities for the collaborative design of the study. In 2014, it received direct support from the County of Wellington (and the cities of Toronto and Hamilton and the District of Timiskaming).
• The PDG project was a 3-year longitudinal study interviewing families once per year for 3 years. We interviewed 67 families with children born between 2010 to 2014.
• Through analysis of the interviews and consultation with community partners we developed our  approaches to analysis

2013

($23,322)

• We conducted community consultations for planning and implementation of the research project.
• We held a 2-day research planning event at Ryerson University, May 5 and 6, 2014.
• We met with representatives of over 100 community organizations in Wellington County, the District of Timiskaming, City of Toronto, and the City of Hamilton to ask for input and feedback on our research questions, design, and implementation strategy.