Childcare
Special Needs and Moving On Project Celebrates 20 Years!
The Special Needs and Moving On projects are among the most outstanding examples of the way unions improve quality of life for their broader communities.
The Special Needs Project helps parents deal with the emotional, financial, and physical stresses of working and having a child with special needs. This resource has been available to UPCE-PSAC members since the union negotiated its Child Care Fund with Canada Post in 2000.
The Moving On Project began in 2006 and is geared towards families with dependent adult sons and daughters who have special needs. When children with disabilities turn 19, they no longer have access to supports that were available to them before, yet their needs remain. The project helps support families with additional challenges when their sons and daughters “move on” to adulthood.
We have created a special anniversary video to celebrate what the Special Needs Project (SNP) has accomplished. In this moving 4-minute video, “In Our Own Words”, ASL version: (https://youtu.be/Zl295LjCfWU) some of our members share what this project has meant to them and their families.
UPCE-PSAC parents can contact the Special Needs and Moving On projects by:
Phone: 1.800.840.5465
Email: info@specialneedsproject.ca
Website: www.specialneedsproject.ca
Other Union Childcare Projects
In Ottawa, the Union supported Tupper Tots Day Care, a non-profit child care center created in 1994 through a Treasury Board workplace child care policy. UPCE-PSAC members also received a subsidy to help offset the parent fees. Unfortunately, the Conservatives changed a longstanding Government of Canada policy of supporting child care and cancelled the rent and custodial subsidy for the non-profit center which led to a multitude of financial issues and eventually bankruptcy. We continue to search for potential options we can support for our PSAC-UPCE members in the National Capital Region.
In the Ottawa and Outaouais area, emergency care is a unique program that can provide quality services on short notice. Child care is available days, evenings, overnights, or weekends, if you are scheduled to work. Care will NOT be available for overtime work and can’t be used in place of your regular child care arrangements. Please call Short Term Child Care for more information at (613)739-0130.
In Fredericton, CUPW along with UPCE-PSAC, have partnered with the Preschool Centre, a non-profit community based program, to develop a child care centre that helps with infants through school-age, and includes children with Special Needs. The Centre also has flexible extended hours.
In Calgary, two community-based non-profit programs offer a range of affordable quality services in a province that favours for-profit child care. Services include quality summer programs, licensed home child care (care in a provider’s home), centre-based care, and emergency care when child care arrangements fall through.
In St. John’s, members have access to the CUPW Family Resource Centre, which includes a quality home child care program, a toy-lending library, and a children’s play group for members. The Resource centre is located at 50 Pippy Place. The Board of Directors includes members from the Union, along with local child care advocates.
UPCE-PSAC parents can contact Shellie Bird at CUPW for additional information:
Email: sbird@cupw-sttp.org
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