School board selected as test site for new program

News Release
RRDSB

The Rainy River District has been selected by the Ministry of Children and Youth, Ministry of Health and Long Term Care and the Ministry of Education as one of seven demonstration sites in the province of Ontario for integrating speech and language services for young children and students.
Tri-ministry authorities said that the Rainy River District proposal submission showed that their collaborative team can demonstrate improved quality, access and value for funding integrated speech and language services for children from birth to Grade
3. To support the achievement of these outcomes, the Rainy River District project has been awarded $150,000 which they will use to pilot an innovative and integrative speech and language service delivery model for preschool and school aged children in the 2011-2012 school year. The rest of the province will anxiously await the intended outcomes of the 7 demonstration sites which are Niagara, Rainy River, Sudbury, Toronto, Haliburton, Kawartha, Thames Valley and Kingston in hopes of setting an example of what works best for children and families and creating easily accessible and seamless speech language services for our youngest citizens in the province of Ontario.

Partners in this incredible opportunity are North Words Preschool Speech & Language Program (Northwestern Health Unit), Northwest Community Care Access Centre School Health Professional Services, Riverside Health Care Facilities Preschool Rehabilitation Services and Rainy River District School Board. The Rainy River District School Board will take the lead and Ann Anderson, Speech Language/Kindergarten Program Coordinator will act as the Demonstration Site Manager. The above team of Rainy River District partners came together with a common goal which was to put children and families first when it comes to their speech and language needs.

Ann Anderson, Demonstration Site Manager, said, “This is our chance to have a say in the direction of speech language service delivery in the province of Ontario and that it is crucial the Rainy River District project partners work as a collaborative integrative team because as Dr. Charles Pascal, Premier’s Special Advisor on Early Learning has found out, that is what children and families want. He says that parents should experience the “no wrong door” notion which means when a family enters a single agency, they enter every agency!”
The Rainy River District proposed service delivery model embraces this notion of “no wrong door” and will strive to provide easy and convenient access to services, seamless transitions from preschool to school, little or no waiting for services and professionals that are collaborative and communicative so that no child falls through the cracks.