Partners in early childhood development

• 139 local groups of partners
• 16 regional cooperation forums
• 35 partnership and innovation projects
• 25 First Nations communities under the guidance of the FNQLHSSC
• 8 Cree nations
• 1 partnership with the Inuit
• 2 projects with native friendship centres

Since 2009, more than 3000 partners across Québec have joined forces with Avenir d’enfants to help foster children’s development at the local, regional and provincial levels.

For a complete list of partners that have joined Avenir d’enfants’ collective effort in support of young children’s overall development, please consult this page: Early childhood development partners [available in French only]

A collective project

Our partners’ interventions combine into a sizeable collective initiative to help ensure that all young children can have the best-possible chances for a good start in life and optimum school readiness. Partner interventions support children’s development from pregnancy to age 5, primarily through family welfare measures, with a specific focus on underprivileged family environments. This large-scale collective undertaking reaches close to 400 000 children.

The importance of concerted action

Concertation and mobilization are the driving forces of our partners’ early childhood interventions. When partnerships are innovative and built on solid foundations, they serve to create a protective network for young children and their families. The collective impact of the various organizations involved in the partnership derives its strength from shared visions and values, the sheer number of collective initiatives and their supportive influence on community cohesion. As the partners collaborate with one another, they also pursue their own particular mission.

The ecosystemic approach

The overwhelming majority of our partners implement action plans that are based on the ecosystemic partnership approach. More specifically, this means that careful consideration is given to several key factors: children and the different environments they live in, families and the community, as well as the dynamic relationship and mutual influence between them. Our partners’ interventions are guided by various protective factors, which serve to shield young children from difficulties.

Diversity of interventions

Our partners implement various types of interventions. Here are some examples:

• Stimulation and prevention activities for children and their parents
• Support, guidance and networking services for parents
• Closer inter-organization collaborations
• Experimental and innovative practices

Together, our partners:

• Share their tools and project outcomes with the whole community (available in French only);
• Conduct interventions that specifically target families living in poverty (complete text in French);
• Work in collaboration with municipalities (complete text in French);
• Carry out project evaluations (complete text in French);
• Collaborate with parents and help reinforce their ability to act, in particular through Voix des parents (complete text in French);
• Seek to remove any obstacles that prevent families from using services (complete text in French).

Collective learning

The knowledge and expertise generated by this collective undertaking began early on and has grown exponentially ever since. The agirtôt.org website, which serves as a forum for sharing these learning outcomes, promotes the recognition, application and appropriation of the experiences and learning that emerge from our partnership initiatives so that all partners can further enhance their capacities for taking action together on early childhood development.