Press release
Publication on November 20th, 2019

Gatineau November 20, 2019 – Connexions Resource Center is pleased to officially launch its new report, Who Are Our 0-5 Year Olds?, which draws a portrait of English-speaking children in the Outaouais and their families. This report provides a better understanding of their reality and of the challenges they face, and will also serve as a guide for Connexions Resource Centre whose mission is to support and promote the health, well-being and vitality of the English-speaking population in the Outaouais.

Research shows that minority populations do not equally benefit from the same services or have access to the same information, which can affect their health and well-being. Hence, it is important to support the development of this minority community and this starts of course with our young ones.

“Using data from the 2016 Census, the 2017 Québec Survey of Child Development in Kindergarten and Connexions’ online survey completed by 417 English-speaking families in the Outaouais last March, we can better understand the reality of our English-speaking preschoolers and their families,” said Danielle Lanyi, Executive Director at Connexions. “The data shows that our English-speaking children aged 5 and under are proportionately more likely than their French-speaking counterparts to live in a family with a low annual income and with a higher unemployment rate. They are also more likely to live in a single parent family and less likely to have a parent with a university degree. As shown in this report, and in recent similar studies, education, socio-economic status and family structure can influence the health and overall development of very young children. In addition, English-speaking children in the Outaouais are proportionally more likely than all children in Québec to be vulnerable in the area of development related to their physical health and well-being, as well as their communication skills. We have a lot of work to do! ”

On this World Children’s Day, and as part of Early Childhood Week, Ms. Lanyi would like to mobilize all partners in the Outaouais: “By working together, we can better support our children and their families. Yesterday, the Observatoire des tout-petits published their 2019 Portrait demonstrating similar data to that highlighted in our own Portrait. We now have several data sets to help us target our actions. ”

Connections Resource Center invites its partners and the public to consult the report, now available on our website at centreconnexions.org/report. Meetings will be planned in the coming weeks to disseminate the results by territory and to target the most vulnerable communities. With our partners, Connexions will put in place an action plan that will span over the next 5 years.

About – Connexions Resource Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and promoting the health, well-being and vitality of the Outaouais English-speaking population.

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Information:
Danielle Lanyi, directrice exécutive
Connexions Resource Center