Better Beginnings Better Futures (BBBF)

Well Better Beginnings, Better Futures is a bit of a unique program for early childhood development started in 1990 funded by the Ontario government, and the focus was on preventing social and emotional problems in young children, on promoting healthy child development in all aspects of children, and also involving parents and community residents in all aspects in the development and implementation of the program. It lasted four years of programming for children based on an ecological model. So the emphasis was not just on influences on the child, but also community influences, family influences and so forth. It lasted four years, four years of programming for children either from zero to four years of age or from four to eight so we had a younger child version, what we called a younger child version and an older child version from four to eight.  

The four to eight year old programs were built in and around schools. That is the children for the four years from four to eight were in junior kindergarten and senior kindergarten, grade one and then grade two. So, they were participating in the public education system, virtually all children, virtually every week and the programs could then easily access the children. They know where they were, they knew who they were. They ran many before and after school programs. They also ran programs in the schools themselves and could hit virtually every child repeatedly over the four-year period.