From July 2011

A Canada that Works for All Canadians

(From BC Early Years Community Developers):

There is a silent generational crisis occurring in homes across Canada.  The Generation raising young kids today struggles with less time, stagnant household incomes, and skyrocketing housing costs compared to the 1970s.  Paul Kershaw’s website examines the decline in the standard of living, and proposes a practical solution – A New Deal for Families.  Many of you will be familiar with Paul’s work through the Human Early Learning Partnership at UBC.  In developing this vision, Paul has worked most closely with Lynell Anderson, who is a Senior Researcher at the Human Early Learning Partnership.  The vision underpinning a Canada that Works for All Generations reflects years of productive conversations with HELP colleagues.

New Report on Obesity in Canada

(From First Call:)     
Obesity in Canadais a joint report from the Canadian Population Health Initiative of the Canadian Institute for Health Information and the Public Health Agency of Canada. The report examines the prevalence of obesity among adults, children, youth and Aboriginal Peoples, presents new analyses of the determinants of obesity using innovative measures, and reports on the impact of obesity in Canada. In addition, Canadian and international lessons learned in obesity prevention and reduction are highlighted.
 
Excerpts:
 
The prevalence of measured obesity was 2.5 times higher in 2004 than 1978/79 among children and youth aged 2 to 17. In particular, among youth aged 12 to 17 obesity tripled from 3% to 9.4%.
 
Measured obesity is 8.6% among children and youth aged 6 to 17, and earlier estimates suggest that 6.3% of children aged 2 to 5 are obese.
 
In most age groups of children and youth, according to self-reported and measured data, obesity is more prevalent among boys than girls.
 
There are a number of research gaps and methodological challenges in studying obesity in this population, including different systems for defining overweight and obesity at different ages and the study of prevalence among very young children.
 
The development of improved measurement, ongoing surveillance and longitudinal studies could help to enhance the understanding of obesity in children and youth.
 
Read the report here.

Our Dreams Matter Too: First Nations Children’s Report to the United Nations

(From First Call:)   
This amazing report was written by First Nations children and supported with letters by non-Aboriginal children too.  The 38 letters written by children in this report talk about the inequities in First Nations education and how these impact their futures. The report asks the UN to study the inequities and urge Canada to take immediate action. From the news release:
 
The report was inspired by First Nations youth education activist Shannen Koostachin, founder of the Shannen’s Dream campaign for safe and comfy schools and equitable education, and convened by a group of students from Attawapiskat First Nation and Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation called the “Dream Team.” The report, supported by the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada and the Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth [Ontario], includes letters from First Nations students across Canada on how the under-funding of schools and education on reserve impacts them and their futures.  Many of the letters echo this statement by Chelsea Edwards, youth spokesperson for the Shannen’s Dream campaign, “Just like Rosa Parks as she started the civil rights movement, we have been sitting at the back of the school bus our entire lives. It was Shannen who rose and walked to the front of the bus, with the company of many children. The back was not a place where we wanted to be, where NO ONE should be.” 
 
French, Cree and Oji-Cree versions of the report are coming soon. Copies of the report and more information about Shannen’s Dream are available at www.shannensdream.ca.

Walking the Walk: Active Transportation

(From Healthy Families:)

“Two miles to school, through the snow, uphill —  both ways!”
We all know the jokes about the incredible distances and difficulties our parents and grandparents faced in order to get to school.  Turns out that those dangers were minor compared to the ones that today’s kids face: obesity and
inactivity.

According to a recent study conducted by researchers at the Universite de Montreal and published this week in the journal Pediatrics, just under 35% of Canadian kids are using “active transportation” (a bike, a scooter, their own feet) to get to school.  Children from urban areas, and in lower income neighbourhoods are more likely to walk than those in rural areas where distances are greater, or children from higher income families.

Study author Roman Pabayo says that the results have implications for urban planning. “We have to look at how we zone and how we plan where we put schools, so it’s … safer and also more feasible for children and teenagers to walk to school.”  

The study’s findings revealed, unsurprisingly, that community matters: when families feel the route to school is safe, children are more likely to walk to school. Parents who reported that their child had many friends in their area were more than likely to have children who walked to school. Teens were less likely to walk or bike if there weren’t traffic lights or pedestrian crossings on their route to school. And whether children had someone to commute with (a friend, parent or  sibling) was particularly significant in determining how they got to school.

How do your children get to school?  And what would need to change in your community to increase the numbers of children who are able to get to school under their own steam?  Tell us your thoughts on our blog

Taking a New Look at Canadian Families

(From Healthy Families:)

Fact: Fewer people than ever are getting married.  The 2006 census was the first in Canadian history to find more unmarried adults in this country than married couples.  Is this evidence of the disintegration of our social fabric, or is it a sign that increasingly people are able to find happiness outside of traditional family structures?

Fact: Children of divorced parents are at an increased risk of living in poverty, and of experiencing academic difficulties.  Does this mean that divorce causes poor child outcomes, or is it rather that the social conditions associated with divorce — parental conflict, reduced family income, fewer resources and supports for parents, increased parental stress — contribute to create increased risk for children?

It’s relatively easy to put together demographic studies that show us how family structures are changing.  It’s much harder to figure out what the meaning is behind the facts, particularly when our thinking about families is often coloured by the rosy glow of our idealized notion of the perfect 1950s nuclear family.

Let’s base social policy on social reality, not nostalgia.  That’s the argument made by Meg Luxton in her recent paper, Changing Families, New Understandings, written for Ottawa-based family thinktank the Vanier Institute of the Family.  “Social policies, ” Luxton writes, “do not always take account of the actual ways in which families live.”

And what are those ways? Luxton’s paper gives readers an overview of the many changes that have occurred in families over the past 50 years — including the widespread acceptance of common-law partnerships, same-sex marriages and parents, the rise in rates of separation and divorce, and women’s increased participation in the workforce. 

Families, she shows us, have changed dramatically since the 1950s, but the idealized picture of the normative nuclear family is still deeply entrenched:  “The success of families is too often measured by the extent to which they conform to the ideal, rather than by the effectiveness of families in providing emotional and material well-being to their members.” 

Changes to how families look and behave makes us anxious, Luxton points out, but as we cling to an idealized image of the family, our public policy will continue to fail to address real families’ needs.  Isn’t it time we woke up and realized that the 50s are over?  What do you think?