Policy Practice Research

 

Questions, comments, suggestions regarding the CCOP initiative?

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Vision for the CCOP

Outdoor play and learning are available, accessible, and habitually accessed by young children living in Canada. 

Mission of the CCOP

The Canadian Centre for Outdoor Play is a collaboration between Outdoor Play Canada, the Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group at the CHEO Research Institute, Algonquin College, and Andrew Fleck Children’s Services through which we aim inspire commitment to advancing outdoor play and learning for the overall health and well-being of children in Canada. The Canadian Centre for Outdoor Play leads demonstration projects, informs policy and practice, provides professional development opportunities, conducts applied research, and leads nationwide knowledge translation and mobilization efforts to promote and support children, their care providers, their families, and the environments in which they play, learn and live. 

CCOP Projects

Outdoor Early Childhood Education Community of Practice

The Canadian Centre for Outdoor Play collaborative invites those interested in outdoor early childhood education to come join our community of practice!

Our community of practice is geared towards early childhood educators across Canada that are interested in and/or already in support of regularly bringing children outdoors. The overarching ethos is to promote collaboration, avoid duplication of efforts, empower practitioners to promote outdoor play opportunities across a variety of settings, and ensure outdoor ECE programming is culturally appropriate and place-based.Some specific goals include the development of quality indicators for best practices in licensed outdoor ECE programs and the development of an outdoor ECE needs assessments to inform the ongoing development and evolution of outdoor ECE resources and tools.

Sign up here:

EN: https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/CCOP23EN

FR: https://fr.surveymonkey.ca/r/CCOP23

 

Not quite ready to join, but still looking for ways to engage? Share what you feel is important for outdoor pedagogical practice here.

Canadian National Panel on Licensing Outdoor Early Childhood Education

This National Panel will advance efforts towards changing ECE licensing regulations across provinces in Canada. The ultimate goal is to achieve – in part through policy, system, and sector advocacy by the National Panel – a commitment by provincial governments to support equitable access to outdoor ECE for all children living in Canada by making these programs eligible for fee subsidy through local municipalities. These efforts will in turn lead to the normalization of outdoor play and learning at a societal level. The National Panel will serve to identify what is being done in the outdoor ECE sector and leverage those efforts in addressing ongoing and new licensing issues and constraints across provinces. There is already work being done in Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and British Columbia to advance this cause and there are many across other provinces interested in starting this journey. The National Panel aims to bring together these interested parties to celebrate successes, use progress and achievements to leverage change, and work through barriers in licensing together.

The National Panel is part of a 5-year initiative to launch the Canadian Centre for Outdoor Play that aims to bring together outdoor ECE practice, research, and policy to mainstream outdoor play and learning for the early years. Learn more about the Canadian Centre for Outdoor Play here.

The call for leaders to join this newly formed panel is now closed. However, we are always keen to find new ways to engage with passionate members of the outdoor play community!

Have an idea? Contact us!

Support for the CCOP

The Canadian Centre for Outdoor Play has been funded in memory of John and Susanne Graham.

 

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