SOCIAL RESEARCH AND DEMONSTRATION CORPORATION

Understanding the Early Years

The Community Process Research Study

Recent research in early child development has underscored the importance of the first five years of a child's life in terms of cognitive, emotional and behavioural development. Of particular interest for policymakers and others working in the area of early child development are findings which point to the prominent role that community and neighbourhood play in this development through, for instance, opportunities for learning and skill development, for social mixing and for adult mentoring. This new learning has resulted in a change in the way governments are approaching policy directed toward early years program development, with increasing emphasis upon community involvement.

Concurrently, there has been more attention paid to the factors which facilitate successful community change. Many recent initiatives have focused on a multi-sectoral and multi-layered approach to program implementation with the view of enhancing the community's decision-making capacity through opportunities for citizen involvement and leadership development. At root is the growing awareness that top-down solutions are less likely to lead to fundamental and sustainable change.

What is Understanding the Early Years (UEY)?
UEY reflects these two strands of thinking. It aims to improve child learning outcomes through the effective use of research evidence, but it is also about supporting efforts to build community capacity. Through involving communities in the process of collecting data relevant to child learning outcomes in local neighbourhoods, it aims to support the development of self-reliant, sustainable communities.

There are 13 UEY sites across Canada. Each site has a local research coordinator, but the coordinator's efforts are guided in each site by a coalition comprised of representatives from a range of sectors, including health, education, social services, justice, recreation, and culture. All share a goal of creating a healthier environment for children and families-one that builds on community strengths while recognizing community challenges.

UEY has progressed in two phases.

Phase I was about collecting the data which would tell communities how their children were faring along five key learning dimensions: physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive development and, communication skills and general knowledge. Data on child outcomes were collected from kindergarten teachers in each of the communities, and from parents and their children, through a specially designed instrument developed at McMaster University, as well as through Statistics Canada's National Longitudinal Study of Children and Youth. Additionally, each site prepared an inventory of available services, amenities, and programs in their community, using GIS mapping techniques and census data to provide a visual portrait of the physical and socio-economic characteristics of the neighbourhoods in which the children live.

In Phase II, this research evidence is being disseminated through a variety of formal and informal processes including presentations by the UEY Coordinator to organizations and community groups, discussions with groups and individuals throughout the community, and support for collaborative structures to support community action informed by the research evidence.

While there are currently 13 communities involved in UEY across Canada, the pilot phase of UEY involved five Canadian communities: Coquitlam/Fraser North (British Columbia), Prince Albert (Saskatchewan), Winnipeg (Manitoba), Prince Edward Island and, the Southwest region of Newfoundland. The North York region of Toronto School District served as the prototype for the other five communities and remains involved as a pilot community. These six communities are the subject of SRDC's Community Process Research Study (CPRS).

What does the CPRS seek to understand?
At the heart of the study is the following question: Can research, put into the hands of members of a community, lead to community change? And, should change occur, is it in any way due to the input of UEY data? If no change is observed, does this mean that UEY has no effect? What contextual factors influence outcomes?

Importantly, UEY is not just one story, but six. Although each site shares a common data collection process, and a common dissemination and mobilization task, the context in which these activities take place varies enormously. There are large differences in important features such as population size, composition, stability and homogeneity, level of provincial government commitment to early years initiatives, economic development, income levels, and health and well-being. The CPRS will treat the sites as separate case studies. At the same time, the study will attempt to draw on the case studies to develop a body of best practices that can be shared with other communities.

Finally, UEY is special in terms of its overarching goal of changing community behaviour, to improve specific child outcomes, and through a community learning process driven by research. If change is to occur then members of the community will have to become informed, decide to act and successfully carry out at least some of their activities. The CPRS will also see to answer the question: "How does a community become a 'learning community'"? What is the process that needs to occur in order for data to become knowledge, and for knowledge to transform into action? How do we find evidence of this transformation?

How will we do it? (Methodology)
In contrast to traditional input-output evaluations, a process evaluation is concerned with providing insight into the transformation that occurs between inputs and outputs. It is about how people engage with each other and with the program-a story told in their own words and reflecting their own experience. It is a "how to" kind of study, and a "what works best" kind of study. It is a study that requires explanation primarily in words rather than numbers and because of this, it requires methods that are primarily qualitative in nature.. At the same time, it does not exclude the use of quantitative methods of data collection and/or the use of available quantitative data, where they are the most appropriate.

We will study two inter-related processes:

The process of "program" implementation.

Each coordinator and coalition is charged with developing an action plan for their dissemination and mobilization activities. The CPRS will document how plans unfold in each community. We will look at operational realities, at aspects of governance, and at the role that context plays.

The learning process.

What needs to take place in order for information to become knowledge, and knowledge to be acted upon? Drawing upon factors identified in the literature regarding the "learning" process--factors associated with messaging, with community mobilization, and with community capacity building-the CPRS will look for ways in which reality matches theory and attempt to understand the factors that influence deviations from the projected pathway.

Data collection methods involve in-depth conversations with many of the major players about their role in the process and/or their assessment of the project's relevance and worth to the community. UEY "audiences" will be surveyed for their initial response to the UEY "message" as well as for their ongoing behaviour in regard to message transmission. In addition, the CPRS will examine relevant archival data regarding community context, as well as relevant project documentation.