Trillium money transforms OPCC child care

Oakville Parent Child Centre to help more families

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Left to right: Sonja Paulsen, Licensing and Family Support Manager; Logan McCann, Finance, Human Resources and Operations Manager: Nadia Headley, Executive Director; Susan Beckett, Program Director; Sandy Palinski, Director, Children's Services, Halton Region; Donette Phillips, Manager, Direct Child Care Services; Fallon Reid, OPCC Chair; Yesenia Morillo, Representative for Stephen Crawford, MPP for Oakville;Hanif Ladha, OPCC Vice Chair;Lisa Henderson, EarlyON Child & Family Centre Manage

On Thursday, local MPP Stephen Crawford’s representative met with the team at Oakville Parent-Child Centre (OPCC) to hear more about the $150,000 Capital grant they received from the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) that was used to install a playground and make additional enhancements to allow them to offer full day childcare.

As a result of this grant, OPCC will be able to provide 30 full day childcare spaces at the Centre beginning January 2024. Total licensed capacity is now 57 children.

"It gives me great pleasure that through the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) our government continues to make substantial investments in organizations like Oakville Parent-Child Centre (OPCC)," said Stephen Crawford, MPP for Oakville. 

"The $150,000 Capital grant is making all the difference allowing OPCC the ability to install a playground and other enhancements to provide full day childcare to their centre by January 2024."

"Our government along with OTF is committed to helping our community organizations succeed so that parents can be assured that their children receive high quality childcare."

Outdoor and active play is essential to children’s health and development, and therefore is a requirement for full day childcare programs.

Exasperated by the roll out of Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC), a provincial commitment to reducing parent childcare fees to an average of $10 per day, OPCC is now able to pivot to increase full day spaces in Oakville for children 18 months to 5 years thanks to the $150,000 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

This will also unlock further support from Halton Region: "This is a real increase in childcare capacity," says Donette Phillips, formerly with OPCC and now Manager of Direct Child Care Services at the Region of Halton.

"When only able to deliver half days, the centre was never fully utilized in the afternoons. This means the centre will be able to be fully utilized throughout the day."

Oakville Parent-Child Centre’s mission is to support, nurture and empower children and their families as they learn and grow together. OPCC has been committed to supporting children and their families in Oakville for over 43 years.

OPCC is currently the EarlyON provider for the Oakville community in addition to offering parenting workshops and support, newcomer programs and various drop-off programs.

To learn more about OPCC programs visit www.op-cc.ca

The Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF), an agency of the Government of Ontario, and one of Canada’s leading granting foundations celebrates 40 years of grant-making in Ontario and making a lasting impact in communities. Last year, OTF invested over $110M into 1,022 community projects and partnerships. Visit otf.ca to learn more.

"We want to thank the Ontario Trillium Foundation for enabling the creation of much-needed childcare spaces for our community," said Fallon Reid, Chair of Oakville Parent-Child Centre.

"With their investment to create this beautiful outdoor space, we are able to continue supporting the families in our community through extending OPCC’s high-quality programming to full day childcare."

The Oakville Parent Child Centre is a United Way agency, and you can support them by donating online here.