An Update From the CUPW Child Care Fund

Greetings, Sisters and Brothers:

Here are some updates on our CUPW Child Care Fund and some important projects!

Important Resources for You.

Too many parents have a hard time finding good child care they can afford. Check out the www.findingqualitychildcare.ca website if you are looking for quality child care options in your area. This website has up-to-date information to help improve your chances of finding good child care you can afford.

Check out the www.specialneedsproject.ca to find the Resource Guide: Special Education Navigation Tool. This Guide makes it easy for parents of school-age children with special needs to navigate the public education system in your province or territory. You can learn about what your school-age child is entitled to and how you can advocate for them.

Updates: Social Stewards, Disability Support and More!

Social Steward Network

Delegates to the 2015 Convention directed CUPW to support and train a network of social stewards similar to our social steward networks in Quebec. In late October 2016, the first 5-day training course for social stewards took place.

Social stewards will be trained to provide support to members in the workplace. They will be there to listen, to help identify problems and find solutions for members facing problems at home or at work. Social stewards will allow CUPW to provide assistance to members as equals – help offered to members by members.

Part of the social stewards’ training included a session on the CUPW Child Care Fund. With the help of our new social steward networks, we hope to get much more information to members about the Fund and about our child care projects, Special Needs and Moving on projects.

Disability Support Information Project

The Special Needs and Moving On Projects have a new initiative underway - the Disability Support Information Project.

We will work with Ontario 211 and Nova Scotia 211. These are non-profit public purpose bodies with mandates to collect, organize and disseminate information about human services. ON211 and NS211 help the public to navigate human services quickly and easily, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

We will work with ON211 and NS211 to pilot an online web portal to support members who have children with special needs to more easily find information about disability supports and services across the country.

Evaluation: Special Needs and Moving On

We are working with the Canadian Centre on Disability Studies (CCDS) to evaluate our Special Needs and Moving On projects.  The evaluation will look at how well we are doing and recommend ways for us to do even better. Project members will be invited to participate in the evaluation through an interview with their advisor in early 2017. 

Child Care – Mini Hub

Members who live or work in rural or suburban areas, or who work part-time or irregular hours often have the hardest time finding good quality child care.

In trying to support these members, we are getting an exciting project underway in British Columbia. Working with three locals in the Lower Mainland of BC, in partnership with BC211 and West Coast Child Care Resource Centre, we will assess the feasibility of setting up mini hubs that would connect and house small child care centreswith information and referral services, family resource programs and family home child care.

Pass on this bulletin to your co-workers and spread the word about our great programs and resources for CUPW members.

In Solidarity,