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Hamilton Best Start

What is Best Start?

Best Start... making Hamilton the best place to raise a child.

Hamilton's children deserve the best start in life and the chance to achieve their very best in school. Best Start will support families by offering a broad range of services for children 0-6 years of age that will ensure their children receive the best possible opportunities early in their lives. Neuroscience and human development studies show that experience-based brain development in the early years of life affects learning, behaviour and health throughout a person's life (The Early Years Study, 1999). Best Start is the initiative that recognizes this research and puts theory into practice. It empowers communities to offer comprehensive, flexible, integrated and seamless services for all children and parents at familiar neighbourhood locations. The long-term nature of Best Start means that we will move beyond preparing children for early learning successes to preparing the next generation of adults to be full participants in their own communities.

Hamilton Best Start Vision

Best Start is about children
Each child is an active learner, full of curiosity and potential, eager and capable of achieving success in school
and beyond.
Best Start is about providing the supports to bring out the best in young children.

Best Start is about families
Parents are the first, most important and most lasting teachers in a child's life.
Best Start is about supporting parents and families, and collaborating with them to enable them to provide children with the best possible opportunities early in their lives.

Best Start is about community and connections
Community partners view themselves as part of an integrated system of supports for early child development
and parenting.
Best Start is about strengthening partnerships and enhancing the integration of all community supports for children and their families.

Best Start is about our future
A continuous learning environment, a commitment to early child development and parenting are key priorities for our community.
Best Start is about doing what is best for our children and our future.

5 Features of Best Start

  1. Best Start provides access to services and supports for all children and parents, regardless of individual, economic or social circumstances.
  2. Best Start is funded through the provincial Ministry of Children & Youth Services, but its programming is designed at the local level.
  3. Best Start is more like something you feel rather than touch. It is not something you sign up for, nor one single place you can go. It is an understanding within this community that our children need every opportunity to learn and that everyone has a role to play in making that happen.
  4. Best Start continues to be influenced by social, economic, educational, and health research which demonstrates that a public investment in children and their parents is instrumental in future success and is a prudent social and economic policy.
  5. Best Start in Hamilton has evolved over several years thanks to collaboration between scores of people across this city including parents and families, Boards of Education, post-secondary educational facilities, child care providers, health and social service agencies and specialized children's services — all people who contribute to Hamilton's rich history of child care and collectively contribute to the positive outcomes of children everywhere in Hamilton.

5 Strengths

  1. COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIPS - Best Start is designed to complement other child- focused community planning endeavours. Most notably, Best Start supports and contributes to the work of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction and its vision of Hamilton being the best place to raise a child. In addition, Hamilton's school boards recognize the opportunities that a Best Start community brings to a child's formal education.
  2. SEAMLESS SERVICE INTEGRATION - Each hub will provide young children with opportunities to explore, create, discover, play and learn. One of the hubs will also focus on the needs of Aboriginal families, while another will provide services for French-speaking families.
  3. PARENT AND FAMILY ENGAGEMENT - Hamilton recognizes that parents play a pivotal role in their child's development as they are a child's first and most influential teachers. Best Start parent engagement strategies will create opportunities for parents to participate in planning as they are important to the Best Start Network, the Best Start Hub Integrating Committee and each of the Neighbourhood Hub Advisory Groups.
  4. MEASUREMENT - Evaluating a child's and a community's progress is key to continuing the cycle of improvement and will be used to determine how we are progressing as a community under the Best Start banner.
  5. EXPANSION OF CHILDCARE SPACES - Children in junior and senior kindergarten will benefit from a full day of care and will continue to learn both inside the classroom and outside.

5 Outcomes

  1. Planning for Best Start builds upon Hamilton's rich history of collaboration in developing services for children. Continuing and expanding upon the strong partnerships will lay the foundation for the success of Best Start.
  2. More childcare spaces. Accessible, affordable, flexible and high-quality early learning and childcare improves children's social and emotional development.
  3. Co-ordinated services to children will make life easier for parents. Programs will be available in neighbourhoods across Hamilton, and parents will have help in getting the services and programs needed for their children to excel.
  4. Best Start is inclusive and considers the cultural needs that exist and are developing in our community.
  5. Evidence shows that children who experience high-quality childcare are better prepared for the transition to school.