A child’s early years are the roots of their future development.
They provide a base for lifelong learning and cognitive and social development. Early childhood experiences and education have an enormous impact on a child’s future success.
But not every child in Southern Vancouver Island is set up for early childhood success.
Every child deserves to learn, grow, and dream in a safe, culturally supportive environment.
And you can ensure Indigenous children on Southern Vancouver Island get a healthy, caring start. This is why we need your support now to raise funds for the Hulitan Early Childhood Years Centre.
About Hulitan Family and Community Services Society
The Hulitan Family and Community Services Society (Hulitan) preserves, unifies, and advocates for Indigenous families by supporting healing and fostering resilience through culturally rooted programs and services. Hulitan is a non-profit organization that has been serving Indigenous families on and off the reserve of Southern Vancouver Island for over twenty years. Visit www.hulitan.ca for more.
A new vision of daycare for Indigenous children
The Hulitan Family and Community Services Society is opening the first trauma-informed, Indigenous-focused daycare centre in British Columbia.
The Colwood-based centre will nurture the Indigenous cultural identity of the children in its care while preparing them to transition into the public school system.
The centre will provide 73 low-to-no-cost childcare spaces: 48 spots for infants, toddlers, and early years children (three to five-year-olds) and 25 spaces for elementary-aged children, providing before- and after-school care.
The Hulitan Early Childhood Years Centre will foster the intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and physical development of Indigenous children.
It also honours the central role parents play, as their children’s primary teachers, and the traditional role of extended family members in educating Indigenous children. The program will work with and support local community programs.
Families will be provided with access to Elders, cultural healing, and counselling services at the centre.
Construction of the daycare started in 2023, on property provided by School District 62 at Colwood Elementary School, thanks to funds from the New Spaces Fund Initiative of the Ministry of Education.
But construction is just the start of this project. A childhood centre is much more than a building.
Help ensure every child can realize their potential.
The Hulitan Early Childhood Years Centre needs your support to furnish the classrooms and break-out spaces, outside play areas, and the required learning materials, games, and books.
This is where you can make an impact.
Your donation will help ensure that Indigenous children have the resources they need to start their school journey and see themselves reflected in the toys, books, and spaces around them.
Your donation will help purchase tangible, essential resources that will have an outsized impact on the kids at the daycare – Indigenous materials with content and imagery that will support their sense of positive identity.
Will you support the next generation of Indigenous children, ensuring they are set up for success in school, and comfortable and confident in their identity as Indigenous kids?
Please unite with us to honour the healing journeys of Indigenous families and communities and support a strong future for all our children. You can make a significant difference by supporting the Hulitan Early Childhood Years Centre.