From Parent Child Mother Goose (PCMG)-Beth Hutchinson

Dear Friends,I am writing to bring you this terrible news. The funding for the provincial offices of the Infant Development Program, the Aboriginal Infant Development Program and the Supported Child Development Program has been eliminated by the provincial government. A press release with further information is attached.This is a huge blow to those programs and also to the entire field of people working with families of young children, old children, disabilities and who want to develop strong and capable community programs of all sorts.The individual local programs have not been cut. It is the leadership, the support, the training, the research, the evaluation and the help with community and program connections that is being cut. This will mean that those programs will be weaker and it will mean that every community initiative that they have fostered and supported will be weaker.Dana Brynelsen was largely responsible for bringing the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program to BC. Please do read through the press release and share it widely. If you do write letters to the politicians or the deputy minister mentioned, it would be great if you could send a copy of your letter to the idp provincial office also (email:infantdv@interchange.ubc.ca). Letters to the media or arranging media coverage locally are also helpful. Some funding cuts have been overturned because of public pressure. This is a good time for applying some.With my very best wishesBeth