Service groups $10,000 richer BUSINESS EDMONTON JOURNAL
EDMONTON / Four local service organizations were awarded $10,000 each by Edmonton's $7-million Social Enterprise Fund to help kick-start new community based ventures. The awards, which include 25 hours of free coaching from business-startup experts at TEC Edmonton and novaNAIT, were handed out at the conclusion of a weekend boot camp for "social entrepreneurs" at NAIT. The boot camp, which drew about 30 participants, was aimed at developing entrepreneurial skills for those launching new, self-sustaining social service ventures. The winners include: Norwood Child and Family Resource Centre: It plans to partner with an Edmonton firm to offer child and family support services in the workplace Norwood Child & Family Resource Centre is a charitable nonprofit that has been providing child and family services for over 45 years in Edmonton's inner city. They have designed a social venture where they will work with large corporations who are willing to invest space to Norwood who in turn, works with the employees of the corporation to design services that meet their needs with a primary focus on children, families and community. They are in the process of working with a company where they have designed businesses around providing childcare, family and multicultural support as well as establishing a small bistro and drop off/pick up dry cleaning business. The profit from these businesses will allow Norwood to increase their programming for high risk youth, increase the number of parents that can get respite to decrease the number of children from potential neglect and abuse and will free up at least 80 more spaces for those who are on waiting lists for childcare in the city of Edmonton. By putting a cost to the benefits for the company like less training needs, increased staff retention and satisfaction, a decrease in absenteeism, we estimated that this current company could in return save 5 times the amount of their investment in space to Norwood. Executive Director MessageIn order to continue working as a Centre of Excellence, part of our work includes hearing from our stakeholders and using this information as we move forward with our programs.
Click on the PDF document below to view the results of all our 2010 surveys. These include:
Please feel free to phone me at: 780-471-3737 any time if you have questions or comments regarding these results.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Executive Director MessageEvaluation is an integral part of the work we do here at Norwood Centre. In order to make sure we are meeting the community’s diverse needs we are continuously analyzing our local data, engaging in formalized environmental scanning process and when we feel the necessity conducting more formal and specific evaluations.
This year, Emerging Directions Consulting Ltd. was contracted by Norwood Child and Family Resource Centre to undertake an outcome evaluation of its Early Start Program and produce a final report outlining findings and recommendations. The report in its entirety is available as well as a one page executive summary for anyone’s perusal. Happy reading! Emerging Directions:“It is recommended that the Centre maintain the current format, functions, and approaches of the Early Start Program. As it is currently offered, ample evidence has been demonstrated through this evaluation that the Centre’s Early Start Program is performing well in balancing the respite needs of Early Start parents while meeting their child’s social, physical, and emotional needs. Interviewed parents consistently praised the Early Start Program for the many positive changes they saw in their child’s behavior. There also appears to be no evidence that Early Start program parents wish the program to expand so their children can have additional time in the program. Only one of twenty parents interviewed indicated a desire for their child to have more time in the program.”
Program EvaluationsEarly Start Evaluation Summary
Early Start Review – October 2009 Emerging Directions Consulting Ltd. was hired by Norwood Child and Family Resource Centre to undertake an outcome evaluation of its Early Start Program and produce a final report outlining findings and recommendations. Specific activities undertaken as part of this outcome evaluation of the Early Start Program included:
Upon presentation and discussion, it was decided that while the report offered affirmation of the program as is, however there were areas that management felt needed further exploring. It was agreed that the evaluation still presented some unanswered questions. The manager of Early Childhood Services is going to do some more literature review and other exploration regarding current trends regarding early childhood development programming. It was also decided that while we would continue with the program as currently structured we would also: 1. Identify and implement ways in which we could enhance the quality of the current programming 2. Identify and implement activities that would increase parent involvement 3. Explore new and enhance current partnerships, including the area of art and music 4. Discuss and review ways in which to include the working parent by utilizing more agency wide activities
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