- require Adobe Acrobat Reader.
         www.adobe.com

Project Sites - Toronto

TORONTO – Urban, Immigrant (largely from Sri Lanka, Phillippines and India), Low Income, High risk, children with identified delay

BASE: Growing Together (Community-based and health promotion)

AGE: 0-4 years

ACTIVITIES: Developmental Assessment Preschool Program Parent-Child Interactional Program: Parent-Child Mother Goose Parent Education Programs: You Make the Difference Home visits Community Day Care Consultation

The Toronto site was in St. James Town, a high-rise, very high-density neighbourhood where many new immigrants start their life in Canada. This site was linguistically and culturally diverse, and most families were living on low incomes. About 68% of the families involved in TLC3 at this site were Tamil-speaking. Only 8% of the families spoke English, and the rest spoke 12 other languages.

TLC³ was part of Growing Together, a prevention, health promotion and early intervention program, created in 1993 to improve the health, well-being and development of infants, young children and their families in St. James Town. Growing Together is a partnership of the Hincks-Dellcrest Centre and the City of Toronto Department of Public Health. It provides a range of services, open to the whole community and delivered by a multidisciplinary, multilingual and culturally diverse team.

The TLC³ site in Toronto was an exception to the general criteria that sites run promotion and prevention programs. Instead it followed a clinical model that assessed children for developmental delays and provided targeted interventions.

Within this context, the TLC³ team assessed and identified young children with cognitive and/or language delays. There were 110 children who participated in the TLC³ program at Growing Together. Most of the families involved with the program were new immigrants struggling to become fluent in English, find decent jobs, and adapt to a new cultural environment. Because of a large Tamil population in the community, the Growing Together TLC³ program had Tamil and Tagalog speaking staff.

TLC³ delivered an early learning play and theme-based intervention program, called Jumpstart, for children aged 30 months to five years. Home visiting was provided in English and Tamil to families with infants and young children in the TLC³ program. Jumpstart and the home visiting program were linked through the home visitors who co-facilitated Jumpstart. The early childhood consultant provided group programs, such as the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program, for parents and their young children. Consulting services in early childhood development and speech and language services were also provided. Children were referred to other agencies for more intensive services, such as speech therapy, as needed.

- Site Final Report - Executive Summary