Communities 4 Families is pleased to provide small grants for agencies working with downtown families to support programming for parenting courses and parent-child programs. These grants are up to $2000 for 6-8 week programs.
Applications are due by Friday, May 31, 2024.
Mental Health Resources – Winnipeg
Addictions Foundation of Manitoba
AFM is a Crown agency that is committed to being a foundation of excellence in providing addictions services and supporting healthy behaviours. AFM employs over 400 staff and provides a wide range of addictions services to Manitobans through 28 locations across the province.
At least 1 in 5 Canadians experience problems with alcohol, drugs or gambling during their lifetime. Many more are affected by someone they care about experiencing these struggles. People of all ages and backgrounds experience these issues – and make positive changes.
Childbirth and Postpartum Resources
WRHA – Community Resources for Childbirth Preparation, Breastfeeding and Postpartum Support.
Due to COVID-19 the resources listed may have changed. Please call the agencies directly to see what supports and services are currently available.
Useful Contacts in Winnipeg
Public Health Agency of Canada (Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program) and Healthy Child Manitoba (Healthy Baby) – revised November 2010
Recreational Programs in Winnipeg
This page gives access to free programs and the current Leisure guide and aquatic programs in Winnipeg.
Aboriginal Community Development
Best Practices in Aboriginal Community Development: A Literature Review and Wise Practices Approach.
By Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux and Brian Calliou
2010 – The Banff Centre
Manitoba First Nations and Metis Parenting Booklets
In celebration of National Child Day (November 20, 2017), Healthy Child Manitoba Office (HCMO), and the National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health (NCCAH) officially launched four new resources for First Nations and Metis parents and caregivers in Manitoba.
Aboriginal Organizations in Manitoba
Aboriginal Organizations in Manitoba: A Directory of Groups and Programs Organized by or for First Nations, Inuit and Métis People. 2011 / 2013
Compiled and edited by:
Aboriginal Education Directorate and
Aboriginal Friendship Committee
Fort Garry United Church
Best Start resource for Aboriginal parenting
An Ontario provincial resource centre that supports service providers to implement effective health promotion programs for expectant and new parents (including both mom and dad), newborns and young children.
Life After War: Education as a Healing Process for Refugee and War-Affected Children
Resources for teachers related to refugee youth. These are Life After War: Education as a Healing Process for Refugee and War-Affected Children 2012 (Full Document) and the two companion documents Life After War: Professional Learning, Agencies, and Community Supports and War Affected Children: A Comprehensive Bibliography, which are web-based resources that are intended to help strengthen the capacity of school communities at all levels (early, middle, and senior years) to provide an appropriate and supportive school environment for refugee and war-affected learners and their families: an environment that will nurture their mental health and well-being, and that will enhance their educational and life outcomes.
Caring for Kids New to Canada helps health professionals provide quality care to immigrant and refugee children, youth and families. It was developed by the Canadian Paediatric Society with experts in newcomer health.
Best practice guidelines for mental health promotion programs – Refugees
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health 2012
A joint project of:
- The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
- Dalla Lana School of Public Health
- University of Toronto
- Toronto Public Health
Best Start resources for newcomers
Ontario Health Nexus has produced two excellent resources:
- Giving Birth in a New Land” – Guides for Women and their Families (34 pages).
- Guide for Service Providers (58 pages)
www.beststart.org/resources/rep_health/newcomer/newcomer_guide_english.pdf
These resources are available in English, French, Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Filipino, Hindi, Punjabi, Spanish, Tamil & Urdu.
A new resource was produced in 2010:
- A Healthy Start for Baby and Me (86 pages)
An excellent, plain language, ethnically inclusive resource, with illustrations and explanations about prenatal care, healthy eating, ways to stay healthy, the three trimesters of pregnancy, labour and birth, after the baby is born, and info about babies.
www.beststart.org/resources/rep_health/pdf/low_lit_book_fnl_LR.pdf
Although some of the information is Ontario-specific, most is generic in nature. www.beststart.org/
Creating a program that makes sense for your families, agency, or your children is the best place to start. Knowing the barriers that may impact those wanting to attend outdoor programs will help you create an inviting, supportive and fun environment. Starting with a plan, a timeline, and your goals will help you and your families enjoy every minute you have outside… No matter the weather!
If you’d like, please use any of the documents below to help plan your outdoor play program. Before you do, please check out some of our suggestions below!
Where we like to Start
Location
If you have an interest from your families and support from your staff, it’s great to start thinking about location. At your location, it is important to keep in the mind the following:
- Accessible washroom
- Space to warm up/cool down
- Permission to use outdoor space
In the warmer months, washrooms at parks are typically open to the public. It is important to confirm these hours and dates prior to starting your program. In the cooler months, it’s a great idea to connect with community centres if you’re running the program in Winnipeg’s downtown.
Supplies
There are some important supplies you can use to enhance your outdoor play program beyond the loose parts, shovels, and rain boots you may provide. It is important to think about the comfort of your families, in the same way you would at your centre.
No matter the season you are running the program, the following is a useful list for preparing for your program:
- Water and/or snack station (cups, water jug, napkins)
- Tarps/blankets for sitting and taking a break
- Hand washing station
- Wagons and bins to transport your supplies
- Transportable fire pit (with fire permit, if allowed)
- Additional warm clothing (tuques, scarves, mittens)
- Sunscreen, extra hats
- Sign in sheets (if with a daycare – documents/emergency contact info)
Planning
Preparing for outdoor play can be no different than a day in your daycare. In the same way that you might prepare tables with crafts and sensory bins, the outdoors can offer that and more to the children in your outdoor play group. Providing opportunities to build with snow, mud, or tree branches, you’re sparking their imagination without using your playroom budgets. Allowing children to move around freely in an outdoor space and letting them have time to explore and define their motivations and interest is an important aspect of play.
You know your families best! By keeping with routines of your playroom or daycare, it’ll be an easier transition to moving your program outdoors. If your centre loves using rhymes, songs, and oral stories, then those are great ways to connect with the family and children in your group.
The more child-led the better! Creating stations that children can gravitate towards allows them to find their personal motivations and interests. Setting up mud or snow kitchen (kitchen supplies in flower pots, in muddy spaces, or in snow piles), magnifying glass stations, and a fort-building station allows them to find what fascinates them most! Children learn through playing, feeling, and asking questions. The more agency they have, the more they’re exploring and learning!
Adding in songs and movement activities that you would maybe do in your indoor programs or in your playroom can help add to certain themed days. If you’re learning about birds or snow melting, it’s nice to create some routine through following a theme in the whimsical experiences of outdoor play.
When you don’t know! There can be many questions that come your way from families about worms, birds, leaves, mud, the sun. Sometimes (or most of the time!) you may not know the answer. Encouraging these questions and locating the answer can be a great way for everyone to learn. Connecting with organizations and resources such as Nature Manitoba, Oak Hammock Marsh, Fort Whyte, Environment Canada is a great place to start!
Asking organizations to partner up with you and join you for a short session on specific topics can help guide you and your program. Setting up 10-15 minutes for an interactive session with an expert in the area can develop everyone’s knowledge on the topic and strengthen the facilitator’s confidence. Asking for help or turning to others when you don’t know the answer is always an important aspect of program development, and showing your families it’s OK to do so!
Connecting with Families:
If you are starting your program with your daycare or as a separate parent-child program, you probably already have a specific line of communication between your families. If you are wanting to start your program in the spring, give your families a heads up. Share with them your ideas!
If you’re connecting over social media, in person, or on the phone, it’s helpful to share the following with them:
- Date, time, how many weeks your program will be
- What to expect
- What to bring (water bottle, blanket, necessary clothing)
- COVID-19 Precautions
- Who to contact if they have any questions
What to Include:
Use your Space
By working off the location of your program, you can come up with awesome ideas and plans! If you have small hills, a sandbox, an open field, garden boxes or flower pots, a skate park… Use these as the foundations of your program.
Loose Parts
These were mentioned on our Why Outdoors? page. As a reminder, they are the natural or upcycled materials used to encourage creativity, curiosity, joy, and fine-motor skills through child-led play. Children take the direction and can manipulate the materials however they imagine.
Some examples of loose parts are:
- Cans, containers, bowls
- Kitchen utensils,
- Sticks, leaves, acorns, pinecones, pine needles
- Buttons, thread, small wheels, rubber bands
- Logs
Embrace things you recycle at your organization. Bring them to your outdoor play program and see what children do with them! The joy many get of putting items into containers will be amazing to watch. Encourage numeracy, colour recognition, sorting, and building!
Check out our Outdoor Play Bank for ideas to get your
Cross Cultural Parenting Program
Families with Teenagers: Resource Manual for Immigrant Parents and Teenagers.
2011 – Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association
200, 138-4th Avenue SE
Calgary, AB
T2G 4Z6
www.ciwa-online.com
School Readiness: Preparing Children for a Bright Future!
What is school readiness and why is it important? Brought to you by University of St. Boniface Third Year Nursing Students.
a website for expectant parents and parents of children up to 5 years of age.
Website for those working with newcomer parents
CMAS—a great resource for childminders and teachers working with newcomer parents.
Its the CCLB for child care!
Healthy Snacks – Ideas for Healthy Snacks.
Nutrition Guidelines – Guidelines for choosing food for community programs.
Bookmates
“Bookmates Inc. offers trainings and workshops on a variety of early literacy topics for service providers working with families”
Babytime Rhymes: Games, Rhymes, Songs, and Lullabies for Babies 0-24 months of age. (free pdf)
FREE BOOKS for Downtown organizations working with families & babies
I love it when you… is a great little book for your babies.
Time to Play! focuses on physical literacy for toddlers.
Outside Play Today, celebrates play outdoors.
Contact info@communities4families.ca to order your copies anytime. We’ll deliver to your downtown site for free!
ALL Books are also available to agencies outside downtown Winnipeg, on a cost-recovery basis. Get in touch for pricing.
If you already use our Books for Babies, make them bilingual by using labels in various languages.
Link to Winnipeg Public Library newsletter:
http://wpl.winnipeg.ca/library/
Call or visit your local branch to register for various family literacy programs. Programs meet over 8 weeks. Program offerings vary across locations.
- Baby Rhyme Time
- Time for Twos
- Pre-School Story Time
- Family Story Time
Check It Out! mobile library service for the whole family (borrowing, card sign-up and activities) visits 3 locations, two times per month each: DufferinSchool lobby, Indian Family Centre, Norquay Community Centre. All members of the community (any age) are welcome at all three locations.
Early Years Program Research
This survey was commissioned by Communities 4 Families to obtain information in regards to programs that currently exist, seek out the gaps, and learn about emerging issues that downtown families with children ages 0-6 are facing. With the information gathered we hope to bring more awareness to the needs in downtown Winnipeg and thus inform our funding and granting directions.
Communities 4 Families (C4F) is a partnership of organizations, agencies and community members that work together to support families living in downtown Winnipeg. C4F is funded by Healthy Child Manitoba. Our members work across departments and sectors to facilitate a community development approach for the well-being of Manitoba’s children, families and communities. Communities 4 Families believes in supporting healthy and active families, focusing especially on the preschool years.
Family Challenges in Downtown Winnipeg – 2010
Over the last year, Communities 4 Families (Downtown Parent-Child Coalition) has been talking to parents and service providers in the downtown about challenges families face and the potential solutions that exist. Group consultations were held at parent organizations around the downtown to ask parents about the challenges they experience and their ideas for solving them. Service providers and academics were consulted, along with recent literature, looking for the best and most recent ideas that address the parents’ concerns.
Common themes coming out of those consultations, along with the recommendations from the reports and service providers, have been compiled into this report. A bibliography with all of the studies used in this report is provided. The reports are all local, and most were published within the last two or three years.
Not only does this report present a snap shot of the current challenges downtown parents are facing, but it also brings together some of the most recent ideas for solving them. We hope this report will be a tool for governments and community organizations in their efforts to improve the lives of downtown parents and families.
Family Challenges in Downtown Winnipeg – Presentation
See a brief summary of this research.
The Impact of Stress on Parenting in Winnipeg’s Downtown – June 2008 Summary
Executive summary of research conducted in Downtown Winnipeg regarding the stressors faced by parents living in the Downtown and the ways they cope with these stressors.
The Impact of Stress on Parenting in Winnipeg’s Downtown – C4F Final Research Report June 2008
View the entire report on our research into the stresses faced by Downtown parents in Winnipeg.
Community Profile and Report on the Healthy Development of
Children in the Downtown Community of Winnipeg – Eni – 2003 report
2003 Summary
maps
Evidence from the Longitudinal survey of Immigrants to Canada
March 2010 Citizenship and Immigration Canada
by Jun Zhao, Li Xue, and Tara Gilkinson
Honour Based Violence? in Winnipeg – Executive Summary – April 2012
Honour Based Violence?
A Research Project Exploring Family Violence towards Young Women from Immigrant Families in Winnipeg
Life After War: Education as a Healing Process for Refugee and War-Affected Children
Resources for teachers related to refugee youth. These are Life After War: Education as a Healing Process for Refugee and War-Affected Children 2012 (Full Document) and the two companion documents Life After War: Professional Learning, Agencies, and Community Supports and War Affected Children: A Comprehensive Bibliography, which are web-based resources that are intended to help strengthen the capacity of school communities at all levels (early, middle, and senior years) to provide an appropriate and supportive school environment for refugee and war-affected learners and their families: an environment that will nurture their mental health and well-being, and that will enhance their educational and life outcomes.
Caring for Kids New to Canada helps health professionals provide quality care to immigrant and refugee children, youth and families. It was developed by the Canadian Paediatric Society with experts in newcomer health.
Website for those working with newcomer parent
CMAS—a great resource for childminders and teachers working with newcomer parents.
Its the CCLB for child care!
The cost of eating according to the ‘Nutritious Food Basket’ in Manitoba, May 2011