Staff with the Grande Prairie Friendship Centre’s Aboriginal Head Start Program have been honoured with a Minister’s Award of Excellence in Child Development. The culturally-based pre-school program for kids aged three to five years old offers unique programming twice a week while welcoming input and involvement from parents.
Program Coordinator Joleen Bateman says the award comes at the end of a year full of ebbs and flows, as they were able to build a Snoezelen room, a fully controlled multi-sensory environment used in sensory therapy. However, their workspace was also damaged by a flood.
Bateman says she can’t take much credit for the award, as it belongs to her staff, a group she believes makes the program run at such high standards.
“This last year was a really big change, but at the end of the day it comes down to my team, they come in here every day, they’re passionate, they love what they do, and without them, we wouldn’t be able to implement anything.”
She adds one of the tougher challenges faced by the staff was keeping the award a secret, as they learned of their victory in the weeks leading up the ceremony, but were told to keep it on the down-low.
“We weren’t allowed to tell anyone for a bit, but when we were finally able to get the award and it was public knowledge, I think that’s when we got excited.”
The GPFC Aboriginal Head Start Program was one of three winners in its program category out of 27 nominees.
