Everything Early Years at our July 18th Social Dialogue Series Event

On Tuesday evening, SVP Partners David Ferguson and Kathy Butler welcomed 20 SVP Partners into their beautiful home for the second in this year’s Social Dialogue Series. This group of Partners came together to do a deep dive into the topic of the Early Years. Event attendees wanted to expand their knowledge on early intervention and the impact it can have in a child’s life. 

After connecting over dinner, guests settled in as SVP Executive Director Helen Stortini shared the learnings from the recently completed Early Years Innovation Fund Impact Report. The TLDR version: the trial is a success so far! Read more about these findings here, or contact Helen for a copy of the report. 

After Helen’s presentation, we were joined by Kate Buium from HELP UBC for a presentation on their Early Development Instrument Data Dashboard, which measures trends and patterns in young children’s physical, emotional, social, and cognitive development using 20 years of data. Partners engaged in thoughtful discussion about B.C. having the highest rate of childhood vulnerability compared with other Canadian provinces, with socio-economic status accounting for nearly 40% of said vulnerability. While the data is fascinating, there is currently no conclusion as to why B.C. children are so vulnerable, but it was speculated that the cost of living being high in most parts of B.C. could be a major contributing factor. 

HELP’s research is thorough and spans 20 years. While it provides an immense amount of information, Kate shared on multiple occasions throughout her presentation that childhood development is complex. While we know that income and social status are two of the main determinants of health, there are so many other layers that contribute to a child’s development, like the parent-child relationship and access to green spaces. Partners engaged deeply with UBC’s research while tying the focus back to SVP’s work, wondering if SVP has used this data to form funding decisions. Helen shared that while SVP doesn’t directly use this data, we know that many of our Investees and Alumni have used it to inform their strategy and to identify vulnerabilities in their communities. 

SVP Partners are deeply involved in their communities and are drawn to SVP because they want to make a difference. So after spending over an hour discussing the severe lack of funding for the Early Years―and the fact that for children in the Early Years, support is of the utmost importance―it was no surprise that one partner inquired whether anything positive could be derived from the data. Kate’s answer was an emphatic yes. This data that highlights childhood vulnerability in our province has been used by thousands of organizations across Canada to not only shape their programming and fill gaps in their communities, but also as a powerful tool to use in funding applications to secure much needed-funding to ensure that children can thrive. 

If you’d like to learn more about HELP UBC’s research, check out their EDI Dashboard or read about how How Revelstoke Used 20 Years of Data to Strengthen Connection.

Stay tuned for our next Social Dialogue Series event this fall! If you’re interested in hosting an upcoming event, please get in touch with Janelle.