Envisioning the Best Start

Ken Johnston

Thursday evening a handful of Rainy River citizens attended a Best Start visioning session at Riverview School.
Dianne McCormack, President of Rainy River Playschool Inc., opened the meeting praising the proposal to bring Best Start (childcare) to Rainy River. “It is a wonderful plan and will make it easier for people to access services.”
McCormack had already been working on a proposal to bring day care to Rainy River before Best Start funding was announced by the province in the summer. Now she sees the two proposals as one and is very excited about the idea of having early childcare in the community and possibly Riverview School.
Jeannette Cawston, Best Start Coordinator for the RR District, took everyone through a visioning exercise. Her first question was Why would a Best Start hub be important?
Crystal Lindal said, “Centrally located services in one place would be better.”
Crystal Stamler said that a hub could look after better marketing of what services are available in a one stop shopping type of format.
Riverview Elementary School has been suggested as a location for Best Start in Rainy River which would likely see grades 7 and 8 move over to Rainy River High School. When asked what is important about the location, accessibility and space were the most important factors for the citizens present.
Other things that would benefit the community with a Best Start hub would be improved networking. Toy Library manager Gabe Langlais noted that Rainy River already has good networking, but a one stop shopping idea would make networking even better.
McCormack noted that the hub would not necessarily house all the services in the community, but it might offer space for services to come in and provide them to the kids in day care. However it would serve as a central point for coordinating services, something that is spotty in some communities at present. “Rather than the kids having to shuffle all over to the various services, they could stay at the hub and get them.”
In addition to a central location, some parents present felt that greater space in the school and more flexible hours would be great for those needing the services. Good staffing was also identified as a key to making the hub function well.
The vision for the local hub has to be into the government in late January, 2006. All the information from the public sessions is being funnelled into a network and will help form the basis for the next three years.
Cawston noted, “We are planning to plan.” They see the vision as a guide and will make changes as need be once the program is up and running.
The government has identified placing 20 day care spaces in Rainy River and has said schools should be considered for their location if possible. The first phase of the program will concentrate on junior and senior kindergarten ages. Eventually kids as young as 18 months up to 12 years old will be part of the system.