2024 Pre-Conference Events & Tours

Created by the Government of Canada, the Assembly of First Nations, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Metis National Council, the Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care Framework was implemented in 2018-19. The framework recognizes the importance of distinct frameworks representing the rights and interests of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Nation.

A priority of this guiding framework is for all Indigenous children have the opportunity to experience high-quality, culturally-strong ELCC.

In 2021, the Government of Canada laid out a transformative plan to build a Canada-wide, community-based system of quality early learning and child care. It committed to working with provincial, territorial, and Indigenous partners to put a system in place.

The priorities of this transformative plan focused in on quality, accessibility, affordability and inclusivity in licensed child care.

As these plans have begun, each province has begun to look at the priorities.

Please join your Canadian colleagues for a day of learning and discussion about the plan.

•What has been successful in provinces?
•What are the challenges?
•What should be our priority?
•How can we work together to ensure that the system is robust for children and families, Educators and the communities in which we serve?

Together we can continue to build upon the good work in place and create the change we wish to see.

Explore Early Environments for Children with the OnDesign

Join a special center tour to Simon Fraser University Child Care Society, hosted by the World Forum’s Global Collaborative OnDesign highlighting the design and development of quality-built learning environments, indoors and out, on Monday, April 15. This tour launches a series of experiences on early childhood design throughout the 2024 World Forum, including the Makerspace, breakout sessions and gatherings. Please join our OnDesign team for any or all of these opportunities to share and enrich our thinking and work on built environments for young children.

Schedule:
9:00 AM-5:00 PM
Cost: $100 USD

*Bring a rain jacket
*There is a 45-minute lunch break. Feel free to bring your own lunch or there is a dining hall on campus.

Registration is closed.

Join your colleagues from around the globe on Monday afternoon, April 15  to visit two diverse high-quality early childhood programs in Vancouver. You will visit two of the four centers noted below. Otherwise, delegates will not know which centers they will visit until they arrive on-site to Vancouver. If you wish to visit more than two centers, consider registering to attend Center Tours on Tuesday as well.  Please note: the deadline has passed for requesting specific centers.

12:00 PM-5:00 PM
Cost: $100 USD

Registration is closed.

MONDAY’S FEATURED CENTERS

Berwick Child Development Center
This tour will be paired with Terra Nova Nature School. Berwick Child Development Centre is an inclusive program for 3 to 5 year olds operated by the Developmental Disabilities Association. This is an 80 space centre; offering both half or full day care. Berwick is located in the Bob Berwick Memorial Centre on the University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver. Berwick serves a population of children with typical and extra support needs; providing an enhanced staffing ratio with funding from Supported Child Development.

Terra Nova Nature School
This tour will be paired with Berwick Child Development Center. Terra Nova Nature School is a not-for-profit outdoor school located in Terra Nova Rural Park in Richmond.  The school is operated by Thompson Community Association in partnership with the City of Richmond. The outdoor space is a public 63 acre parkland which encompasses large fields, forested areas, community gardens and farmland. The indoor space is a beautifully restored heritage building which services the licensed preschool children and staff. Terra Nova Nature School offers programs for children of all ages, from infants to teens.

Children spend the majority of their time outside, regardless of the weather, exploring the natural environment. Terra Nova Nature School weaves together pedagogies from land-based learning, emergent curriculum, free-play based learning and First People’s Principles of Learning frameworks.  The foundation of the work is highly relational and at the core of all learning is social and emotional development, care and compassion and building community.

Coast Capital Savings Robert Lee YMCA Child Care

This tour will be paired with West Cambie Children’s Center. Coast Capital YMCA Child Care program is located in Downtown Vancouver on the 5^th and 6^th floors of the Robert Lee YMCA. This child care centre has 65 licensed child care spaces for infants, toddlers and children 3 to 5. Coast Capital YMCA Child Care features stunning outdoor play areas that promote healthy adventure play.  Our YMCA Early Years program follows YMCA’s national Playing to Learn curriculum—an evidence-based approach to early learning that focuses on the importance and value of play. Play ensures involvement, enjoyment, and various forms of success. Play can be powerful and profound and is always purposeful. Play propels a child into the vast realm of learning and enhances a child’s cognitive development and academic success. An added benefit of this curriculum is that it engages children, can be self-initiated, and is therefore learning is a joy rather than a chore. The YMCA is committed to providing a welcoming and safe environment where children in our care have the opportunity to learn, connect with others, have healthy experiences and as a result, reach their full potential.

West Cambie Children’s Center

This tour will be paired with Coast Capital Savings Robert Lee YMCA Child Care. The Society of Richmond Children’s Centres is a multi-site non-profit organization with a vision of “Changing the world by honouring childhood”.  Our West Cambie Children’s Centre location will show you our values-led, reggio inspired, play based curriculum in action.  We make every decision based on our values and seek to build a community together with educators and families that celebrates diversity, inclusion, innovation and justice.  Best practice is not a catch phrase but a way of being in the world in a wholehearted way, together, building the future in honouring and nourishing ways.

TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2024

Join your colleagues from around the globe on Tuesday morning, April 16  to visit two diverse high-quality early childhood programs in Vancouver. You will visit two of the four centers noted below. Otherwise, delegates will not know which centers they will visit until they arrive on-site to Vancouver. Please note: the deadline has passed for requesting specific centers.

8:00 AM-12:00 PM
Cost: $100 USD

Registration is closed.

TUESDAY’S FEATURED CENTERS

Creekside Child Development Centre
This tour will be paired with University of British Columbia Child Care Services. Creekside Child Development Centre is an inclusive child care setting for children 10 months to 5 years in Vancouver. Creekside is operated by the Developmental Disabilities Association; located in a 2010 Olympic Village legacy building. This program has 64 spaces and is a $10 a Day ChildcareBC program participant. Through funding from Supported Child Development, Creekside offers spaces for children with extra support needs.

University of British Columbia Child Care Services
This tour will be paired with Creekside Centre. UBC Child Care is located on the unceded territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ speaking xʷməθkʷəy̓əm people. UBC Child Care is the largest on campus child care in North America with thirty-eight different purpose built settings for children, providing care for 730 children from birth to age 12 and employing over 200 amazing early childhood professionals. Child Care has settled on these lands for over 53 years, officially becoming a part of the University community in 1991.

The traditional homeland of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm people, where the early childhood educators at UBC practice, includes important environmental elements such as the nearby Pacific Spirit Forest, the university academic world and the residential neighbourhoods. These lands, the forest, and the surrounding communities influence pedagogy/ies at UBC Child Care. These pedagogies aim to disrupt colonial histories and are transformative and responsive to the context in which the children, families and educators at UBC live, work and play.
Within their pedagogical responsibilities, UBC Child Care’s early childhood educators are committed to thinking with anti-racist, feminist, indigenous, decolonial and socially just lenses in response to the complexities of the world’s current conditions.

At UBC Child Care, children are understood as citizens with rights. Inclusivity, affordability, accessibility and quality are considered in all decisions made at UBC Child Care. Child Care spaces are prioritized for UBC students, staff and faculty and many families wait for over two years to access care for their children. UBC Child Care is committed to working with the Province of BC on the continued expansion of innovative child care facilities that are carefully designed and coupled with philosophies that allow these exceptional indoor and outdoor settings to evolve and adapt with educators and families over time. The team at UBC Child Care is excited to welcome the World Forum to their amazing spaces in April, 2024.  hay ce:p q̓ə

Simon Fraser University Child Care Society

This tour will be paired with Capilano University Children’s Centre. SFU Childcare Society (SFUCCS) is a childcare center deeply inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy, nestled amongst the trees atop Burnaby Mountain. We hold in high regard the value of children, educators, families, and the natural environment, appreciating the unique contributions they bring to our shared community space. Our mission, “Leading excellence in early care and sustainable learning,” revolves around our commitment to fostering not just the concept of quality, but the creation of conditions that enable children and educators to engage in meaningful collaborative endeavors.

This collaboration is a dynamic process, as children, educators, and families bring their distinct perspectives and new ideas together. However, through engaging in open dialogue with our supportive community, we cultivate a shared lens that unifies us and encourages profound thinking as a cohesive community.

During the World Forum tour, we will have the privilege of hosting you as you explore the indoor and outdoor spaces at SFUCCS, where you can witness how intellectual materials ignite a world of possibilities and curiosity. The tour offers a unique opportunity to recognize the significance of place-based pedagogy, appreciate the pivotal role of the studio in our context, and understand how we embrace and interact with the BC Early Learning Framework.

We hope this experience inspires you to delve into the inspiring work that both children and educators are sharing. As you’re introduced to our spaces, we invite you to share your own perspectives and inquiries, fostering a sense of wonder alongside us.

Capilano University Children’s Centre
This tour will be paired with Simon Fraser University Child Care Society. This Children’s Centre is a not-for-profit childcare centre operated by Capilano University and licensed by the Provincial Government. We are known for our committed and professional Early Childhood Educators who, together with the children, create rich early learning experiences for a maximum capacity of 69 children from birth to kindergarten.

Capilano University Children’s Centre has a mandate to serve the University community through the provision of high-quality early learning and care to the children of students and employees. Our early learning classrooms are pedagogical spaces, spaces of co-constructed emergent curriculum, exploration and experimentation. We are committed to the language of pedagogy that has come to us from Reggio Emilia, Italy: a language of beauty, artistry, curiosity, invention, listening and dialogue. Taking inspiration from the Reggio Emilia pedagogical approach, the Children’s Centre began working with a pedagogista and an atelierista 15 years ago. Over the years, we have developed an intimate work with critical pedagogies of place; our efforts driven by creating innovative and situated pedagogies that evoke the history of our experience here at the Centre.

The Children’s Centre functions as an academic laboratory that supports course curriculum and experiential, practice-based classroom learning for students across a broad range of programs both on campus and in the broader Early Childhood Care and Education/early learning community. We provide the University community with a vibrant academic resource, welcoming both faculty and students. We are considered one of the top lab schools in Canada and we work in partnership with the Capilano University School of Education and Childhood Studies in the provision of the education of future educators. Our accomplishments come from functioning not only as a provider of childcare but from the role of a lab school where educators and faculty are in collaborative and generative partnerships that inform curriculum and course development.

As a lab school, and in partnership with the Centre for childhood studies, we have developed a ‘designated centre’ practicum model. This model places Early Childhood Care and Education students in consecutive practicum placements within the same early years centre, with a consistent mentor teacher and faculty advisor or pedagogist, to cultivate intentional pedagogical relationships. This allows students to become immersed in the culture of an Early Childhood Care and Education setting through long-term inquiry and practices of pedagogical documentation. Through the designated practicum model, we open new dialogues, mobilize change and spark radical shifts in practice that strengthen our local Early Childhood Care and Education communities.

Vancouver City Tour

Registration is closed.

A second option for Tuesday, April 16 is a city tour highlighting the unique environment, culture and history of Vancouver.

Tentative Schedule:
12:00 PM | Depart from the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre
• Visit Granville Island for a brief tour of this little oasis in the middle of the city. Walk-through one of the market halls and snap a picture of the quaint water taxis cruising through False Creek. There will be free time for lunch and shopping here.
• Explore the Totem Poles and Prospect Point in Stanley Park
• Drive through the Westend’s trendy neighbourhood and English Bay.
• Visit Canada Place and Jack Poole Plaza where you will see the Olympic Cauldron and the Vancouver Harbour.
• See the panoramic city views of Vancouver from the observation deck of Vancouver Lookout (admission included).
5:00 PM | Return to the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre
Cost: $100 USD

Delegates participating in the Tuesday morning Center Tour will not return to the hotel in time to join the City Tour. Please book accordingly. 

The World Forum Child Advocacy Summit in Vancouver

1:00 PM-5:00 PM
There is no cost to attend this summit. However, you must first register to attend the 2024 World Forum on Early Care and Education.

To honor the 20^th Anniversary of the Global Leaders for Young Children Program, the World Forum Foundation is hosting a Child Advocacy Summit in Vancouver co-sponsored by ECDAN (ecdan.org). The Advocacy Summit will focus on building skills for global advocacy of young children and will be an event that specifically invites Global Leader program alumni and World Forum National Representatives to join the new cohort of Global Leaders in a pre-conference event. Anyone attending the World Forum on Early Care and Education is Vancouver may register to attend, and there is not additional cost for World Forum delegates, but space is limited and registration is required. Please join child advocates from around the globe at this unique pre-conference event.