Brussoni – society to cell

The Human Early Learning Partnership or as we like to call it HELP, is a collaborative, multi-disciplinary research and knowledge mobilization centre that is focused on thinking about the differences that make a difference in children’s lives. And so, to do that, we bring together people with multiple sectors and expertise and disciplines, and we collect population level data looking at different points in children’s lives so that we can understand what is it about the context in which children learn, grow and play that has an impact at that point as well as into the future. 

So, the socio-ecological model, it looks at children in the context of the different layers and levels that they’re living in, the environments, the policies, etc., that influence directly on their development. So, you can think about, the broader level, the global level of things like a pandemic or climate change, the next level down being things like the national or provincial policies like around health care services education, housing, the next level down, looking more at the neighborhood and say, access to services or green space. And then finally at more proximal around the child the adults in that child’s life, their parents, the school, early childhood education environments and so on. 

When we talk about society to cell, we’re thinking about, you’ve got the child at their individual level that are influenced by all of those layers, right? And all of those layers are displayed at the child individual level. So, we talk about the kinds of differences that get under the skin, right. So, the epigenetics of child development, so that kind of adverse environments or supportive environments actually influence that child’s outcomes, but even the genes that are expressed within their bodies. So, in HELP’s work we want to think about all of those layers of influence and collect data and information on all of those layers so that we can understand, and we can think about ways to support a more equitable start in life so that all children and families are getting that equitable start in life.   

So, at HELP we talk about identifying the differences that make a difference. And so, what we’re trying to do is really figure out because children’s environments and contexts are very complex and diverse, but can we pinpoint those that are really critical to make a difference and so that we can have actionable evidence that we can then share with our government partners, communities, health authorities, schools, etc., so that they can actually act on those things.