Positive Approaches to behaviour initiative. province of bc logo, can assist logo, university of victoria logo

Positive Approaches to Behaviour Initiative

CanAssist and the Ministry of Education and Child Care

Project Overview – June 2023

 

Background

CanAssist is an organization of the University of Victoria that is dedicated to addressing gaps in existing services and increasing awareness of disability issues. CanAssist serves people of all ages and abilities to improve quality for individuals with disabilities and their families.

CanAssist has previously collaborated with the Ministry on several initiatives:

2017- innovative technologies for BC's CDCs. 32 CDCs across BC received CanAssist technologies designed to improve outcomes for children with special needs while providing staff with toold to help them deliver their services more effectively. 2019- Inclusive toileting resources for BC child care community. CanAssist developed resources that support independent toileting in child care settings. Over 1000 child care centres also received an innovative assistive technology which promotes accessibility, the toilet step tool. 2019- Foundations of inclusive child care online training. CanAssist developed an introductory level training module to support child care program staff with training materials about inclusion, reflective practice and its importance in the delivery of quality child care.

 

Current Project 2022-2024 – Positive Approaches to Behaviour

The Ministry of Education and Child Care (MECC) has granted CanAssist funding to develop resources to support child care providers in taking positive approaches to supporting children’s behaviour. The goal of this initiative is to build knowledge and capacity within the Child Care community and reduce the number of children who are excluded from child care programs in response to their behaviour.

Key Deliverables:

Position Statement - Create a position statement describing our collective vision for how behaviour is understood and approached in BC, primarily intended for those involved in the provision of child care. Online Training - Create and online professional learning module specific to positive approaches to behaviour, which is set to build upon the foundations of inclusive child care online training previously developed by CanAssist. Additional Deliverables - Additional deliverables and solutions will be determined based on stakeholder engagement in addition to practical research, may include further training or technology development.

 

Community Engagement & Partners

Stakeholder consultation and validation is critical to the success of this project. CanAssist will act as a convenor and ensure the expertise and voices of the BC Child Care Community shine through this project from beginning to end.

 

Core Advisory Group

The Core Advisory Group will act as a consistent steering group throughout the duration of the project, providing strategic input from a broad provincial perspective at key points throughout the project.

 

Community Network

The community network will be a large strategic network of partners to engage with as needed throughout the project.  This network will grow as the project progresses and members will have numerous opportunities to be involved in various capacities. We will seek input from a broad range of stakeholders, including (but not limited to):

A large circle with a smaller circle within. In the large circle, is the label that reads community network. The large circle contains these roles: Clinician/service providers, Regional advisors (ASD, SCD, ISCD), parents/caregivers, behaviour support workers, child care staff and ECEs, subject matter experts, and MECC Child Care Policy staff. The smaller circle is labeled as core advisory group. It contains the points: Core steering group, provide strategic input at key points, and broader provincial perspective.

Timeline

The Positive Approaches to Behaviour Project is a two-year project that continues to March 2024.  Phase 1 of the project is complete.  Current work is focused on the completion of Phase 2 and the transition into Phase 3 of the project.

Phase 1: April to September 2022 (COMPLETE)

  • Initial research and engagement
  • Identify and analyze existing resources and key resource gaps
  • Establish language to be used for the project and key operational definitions
  • Draft outlines of Position Statement and Online Training

 

Phase 2: October to March 2023 (COMPLETE)

  • Position Statement Content Development, Graphic Development, and External Review
  • Online Training Content Development
  • Propose additional deliverables

 

Phase 3: April 2023 to March 2024 (IN PROGRESS)

  • External Review of Online Training materials
  • Media and Graphic Development to support Online Training
  • Launch Position Statement and Online Training
  • Complete work relating to additional deliverables

 

A horizontal timeline of what’s happening in the Positive Approaches to Behaviour Project. There are months listed horizontally from April 2022 to March 2024. On the top and bottom of the row of months are rounded rectangles in different colors representing different types of items for different stages of the project. The first color is yellow with two rectangles. One on the top and one on the bottom around April 2022 to September 2022. A label under the timeline reads: initial research and engagement. The top reads: Initial research and resource collection. The bottom reads: establish groups and conduct community engagement. Next are the blue rectangles that stand for position statement and online training. Nov 2022: complete first draft of position statement. Dec 2022: create outline, learning objectives, and early drafts for online training. Jan 2023: complete external review of position statement. March 2023: host online training working groups. April 2023 complete online training written content and initiate external review. June 2023: develop video or multimedia content to support online training. July 2023: upload or training content to BCEYPD hub. October 2023: launch online training and position statement. The next are purple rectangles that stand for additional deliverables. January 2023: additional solutions proposed to MECC. April 2023: begin research and development for additional deliverables. August 2023 additional deliverables developed. March 2024: Additional deliverables delivered. At the end of the timeline after the dates is another purple rectangle that reads: Project complete.

 

Take part in this project

Behaviour Billboards

Throughout our community engagement we have often asked people to think of a phrase that they might put on a billboard about children’s behaviour.  The idea of the exercise is to come up with one key phrase that sums up an important message about supporting children’s behaviour.  We always have so much fun hearing everyone’s answers.  We decided that we wanted to find a way to make these “billboards” a part of our online training and give people a chance to have their message broadcasted to a larger audience. 

We are creating an introductory video for our online training that is based around what we are calling “behaviour billboards”.  We are looking for folks to submit their billboards to us for a chance to be featured.  We have created a short video with the instructions and a few example videos so that people can see what the videos look like.  The video submissions are very short and meant to be a fun way for people to get involved.

   https://youtu.be/8lOIv-LEl5w

If people could please send their videos to the CanAssist Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/CanAssist/) that would be great.  Any questions can be directed to me at canaspc@uvic.ca

Photos:

We are hoping to feature photos of BC childcare spaces in the online training.  We are looking for folks to send us photos that do not feature children but relate in some way to supporting children’s behaviour.  If people have parts of their spaces that are especially helpful for supporting children’s behaviours (i.e., sensory caves, calm corners, visual schedules, etc.), resources that they use for relationship building, visuals that they use to help children regulate etc. we would love the opportunity to feature photos.

 

For more information please contact:

Nora Loyst
CanAssist Special Projects Team Lead
canassistsp@uvic.ca
250-618-7139

Hannah Eilertsen
CanAssist Special Projects Coordinator
canaspc@uvic.ca
250-532-8877