Sahhaltkum Daycare

Sahhaltkum Daycare team continues to make improvements to quality early learning and childcare. Although we were closed for five months due to the pandemic, we were still able to move forward in many ways and work towards our vision “to create a loving, peaceful and culturally responsive early learning centre that nurtures children’s minds, bodies and spirits in changing and evolving contexts.” During this past year, we received a minor capital grant from BC Aboriginal Childcare Society that has allowed us to make huge improvements to the environment and building at the centre. We have new flooring and cabinets throughout the building, a new roof, new furniture and outside covered areas. We will continue to use the funding to make a few more indoor improvements but mainly to improve the playground areas for more outdoor learning opportunities. We also received several Covid-19 related grants. The first grant allowed us to hire staff members during the summer- one staff (Michelle) was able to create Covid policies and procedures. The other staff (Terri, Violet & Joyce) were able to create outreach learning packages for all our families. The other grant we received allowed us to purchase supplies for health and safety protocols. The staff here continued to take the professional training offered by BC Aboriginal Childcare Society and engage in First Nations Pedagogy Network Focus meetings to strive towards quality learning and care. We also attended Children First Meetings to work towards collaboration with all the ALIB early learning programs. Our number of children has remained low due to the pandemic and to staffing issues. We operated with three full time staff (2 ECE’s and 1 ECEA).

Our future goals include:

• To continue improving the quality of our early learning and care • To clarify our philosophy vision statement • To strengthen our language and culture program • To continue professional development with

Indigenous focus • To continue exploring funds through BC

Aboriginal Childcare Society who are the professional body helping to support quality indigenous early learning and care • To create a quality environment for both staff and children with a goal of retaining staff and to create a stable learning environment for children.