Page 19 - 2022 Feb Report

Resilience
Martin Family Initiative report (7)
Our Vision for the Years to Come
Online course delivery in 2021 allowed for time, location and instructor flexibility. This enabled us to facilitate asynchronous courses throughout the country, expanding the reach of the Early Years and our capacity to meet the needs of our various community partners. It allowed us to continue to facilitate
the course in the face of challenges brought on by the
Covid-19 pandemic. To catalyze progress made over the last year with regards to EY-1 online course design, development, implementation and evaluation, we are aiming to make training more widely accessible in the coming year, to reach an even broader audience of Indigenous early learning professionals.
In 2022, we will continue to work with community-based organizations to launch additional adaptations of the EY-1 course, including a course for urban Indigenous early learning professionals in Toronto in collaboration with Native Child and Family Services of Toronto, a Yukon First Nations course for early learning professionals in the territory in collaboration with the Yukon First Nation Education Directorate, and a version of the course developed in collaboration with Tajikeimik, Mi’kmaq Health and Wellness—a newly formed authority in Nova Scotia who will support all 13 First Nations communities in Nova Scotia with the delivery of health services. These courses will be reflective of the knowledge and culture specific to each community context and will be accessed by learners virtually or in-person through these partner organizations.
In the next two years, we seek to expand our course offerings to include general First Nations, Métis and Inuit versions
of the EY-1 course. We will make these courses available through the professional learning network, to be accessed by Indigenous and non-Indigenous early learning professionals across the country, regardless of their association with one
of our partner organizations. Given our national infrastructure and our established methodology for developing, delivering
and evaluating training, the Early Years is uniquely positioned to offer courses of this kind, addressing the current lack of culturally adapted and accessible training. 6,7
6 Child Care Human Resources Council, (2013). 7 Government of Canada, (2018).
To meet the varied needs of our partner organizations and Indigenous early learning professionals more broadly, we will be seeking additional funding to develop the First Nations, Métis and Inuit courses for online, in-person and hybrid delivery. As mentioned above, online courses come with a level of adaptability that is well suited to the Early Years approach. In-person training, however, enables a level of relationship- building that can play a fundamental role in positively shaping learners’ relationships with one another and the broader work culture they are a part of. In-person training is also culturally compatible with how Indigenous peoples have always learned; it privileges the oral transfer of knowledge in the context of relationships.
Our partner organizations such as the Yukon First Nation Education Directorate, The Aqqiumavvik Society and Ilitaqsiniq have attested that their preferred training delivery model begins with building relationships through several in-person training days, before moving to the online delivery of the course. Along with funding to support hybrid course delivery, we also aim
to secure the necessary funds to hire a second trainer on the Early Years Curriculum and Training team, who, in addition to delivering training to learners through the EY-1 course, will also provide training and capacity building to community-based trainers through a train-the-trainer peer mentorship model. This will ensure a sustainable and community-led approach to course delivery. We will be seeking funding of approximately $400,000 over three years to support this additional training support.
As the number of Early Years partnerships expands, along with the number of learners enrolled in EY-1 courses, our vision
is to catalyze the goals we have accomplished in 2021 by securing additional funding that will ensure the high-quality sustainability of course development and delivery in the future. The general First Nations, Inuit and Métis courses will provide undeniably important learning opportunities for Indigenous early learning professionals across the country. Our ability to offer flexible and accessible course models, delivered online and facilitated in-person, will ensure that we can meet the varied needs of learners and partner organizations moving forward and for years to come. We hope to continue to collaborate with the Johnson Scholarship Foundation in the years to come.
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