Understanding the Early Years (UEY) is a national initiative of Human Resources and Social Development Canada that enables members of communities across Canada to better understand the needs of their young children and families so that they can determine the best programs and services to meet those needs.

The focus of UEY is community capacity building using local information on young children. The broad objectives of UEY are to:

- Strengthen the capacity of communities to use quality local information to help them make decisions to enhance children’s lives; and
- Enable community members to work together to address the needs of children.

The Initiative provides members of participating communities with quality information on the readiness to learn of their kindergarten children; family and community factors that influence children’s development; and the availability of local resources to support young children and their families. Parents, teachers, key decision-makers, and others interested in the well-being of children in each community can then work together to address issues identified by this information.

UEY aims to involve children from all backgrounds including Aboriginal children (which generally applies to First Nations, Inuit and Metis), children of new immigrants, children in official language minority communities and children in disadvantaged circumstances.
Source: Human Resources and social Development Canada website.

In Burnaby, the Understanding the Early Years Project has the following objectives:

- Increase the community’s capacity to work together;
- Conduct ongoing research on children to effectively respond to emerging needs;
- Identify gaps in service and develop an improved, evidence-based Community Action Plan;
- Develop an appropriate community information system to inform families of ECD resources;
- Improve ECD outcomes for children and families; and
- Raise awareness of the importance of ECD in the broader community.

The intended results of the Burnaby Understanding the Early Years Project include:

- Increased understanding of the importance of ECD and local ECD issues;
- Increased participation in ECD programs by children and families;
- Improved effectiveness of ECD programs;
- Improved school readiness; and
- More integrated and comprehensive ECD service delivery.

The Burnaby Understanding the Early Years Project is sponsored by Burnaby Family Life on behalf of the Burnaby ECD Community Table. The Project runs from 2007 – 2010.

For more information about the Burnaby UEY Project, please contact: jtaylor@burnabyfamilylife.org

The Understanding the Early Years Initiative is funded by Human Resources and Social Development Canada. For further information, visit www.hrsdc.gc.ca.