The importance of early childhood education is the focus of Weyburn’s Sunrise Early Learning and Teen Parent Support Centre. “We do a lot of child-initiated play, and we program around the children’s interests,” said Lori Hiltz, director of the Sunrise day care.
Located in the newly-renovated Weyburn Comprehensive School, occupying the space that was formerly the main office area for the high school, Sunrise is in an expanded area, licensed for 50 children.
Of those spaces, 39 is for the community, and 11 spaces are the original teen support spaces, with all of the community spaces filled up at the current time, and a waiting list of some 30 families.
The centre first opened on Aug. 29, 2005 as the Sunrise Infant and Toddler Centre. During that time, the centre was exclusively used by young parents, so they could continue with their education and graduate with their high school diploma.
“Those spaces are reserved for those who are under the age of 22, who are finishing Grade 12, whether at the Comp, the Bridge School or in the Adult Basic Education program at Southeast College,” said Hiltz.
The Sunrise centre has nine full-time staff, plus a director and assistant director, and three students who work part-time after school.
In terms of training, five of the full-time staff, including Hiltz, has Early Childhood Education level 3 training, and two staff are at level 1, with one working towards achieving level 2.
“We believe in order to run a high-quality program, we need highly-educated staff members, we encourage our staff to seek out new ways to educate themselves either through further education offered at Sask Polytech or university, as well as attending workshops and conferences,” said Hiltz.
May is Early Childhood Education Month for the Ministry of Learning. Across the province, there are 14,546 licensed child care spaces and 5,056 prekindergarten spaces currently available.
Weyburn’s Nicole Wendt, who was formerly the director of Sunrise, is now the executive director of the Saskatchewan Early Childhood Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to high-quality early learning in partnership with those invested in the growth and development of children.
“Quality early learning and child care programs help children learn, enable parents to be employed or in school, reduce poverty, support families, contribute to a strong economy and are key to women’s equality,” said Wendt.
