Research: Building Policy Relevant Research To Support Child Well-Being in Nova Scotia

Among its world-renowned research expertise, MSVU is committed to being a leader facilitating critical advancements in childhood development. Ensuring access to high-quality programs and services for families can improve children’s longterm health and education outcomes and reduce inequities in health, income, and education in the population.

Building Policy-Relevant Research to Support Child Well-Being in Nova Scotia, is a project of the Early Childhood Collaborative Research Centre (ECCRC) led by Dr. Jessie-Lee McIsaac, Tier II Canada Research Chair and Director of EERC at MSVU, with a goal of enhancing well-being during early childhood by ensuring policy and practice supports families that experience inequity.

“Providing the best start for your youngest generation is a growing priority across Canada,” says Dr. McIsaac and has resulted in an “explosion” of policy response. This project is bridging the gap between knowledge and practice.

Research objectives include: • enabling early childhood educators to record and reflect on how numeracy and literacy can be achieved through play; • supporting the development of a Bachelor of

Arts, Early Childhood Education concentration with the Department of Child and Youth Study; • mobilizing an Atlantic-wide network to support momentum building toward an accessible, affordable, high-quality, and inclusive early learning and child-care system.

Now in its fourth year, the project has received annual funding from the Margaret and Wallace McCain Foundation.

Left to right: Laken Crowell, Bachelor of Public Relations Student, Communications Assistant at ECCRC, Dr. Jessie-Lee McIsaac, and Sarah Warwick, Research Coordinator at ECCRC