The Altona and Area Family Resource Centre (AAFRC) officially closed out another successful year of providing free programming to pre-school children and their parents, during its recent 2019 annual general meeting.

For Carol Braun, AAFRC board chair, highlights of the past year include seeing the many children and parents attending and enjoying the various programs offered in Altona, Gretna, Rosenfeld, Emerson, and Dominion City.

Braun is also encouraged by the AAFRC's ability to attract and retain a variety of people who access the programming on a regular basis."The best things that happen are when kids take the rhymes and the stories home with them and ask their parents to sing that song or do that game...parents report that this happens with the children as they are participating in our programs," said Braun. She is also encouraged by the organization's ability to attract and retain a variety of people who access the programming on a regular basis.

Meantime, the past year saw the board of directors authorize an assessment examining whether the current suite of programs offered at AAFRC is meeting all of its goals of literacy, numeracy, health, and positive parenting and connecting families.

"The result of that assessment was a major report that was compiled, recommendations were made and we are working hard this year to implement those recommendations," explained Braun, noting board is always looking to build and improve the work done through AAFRC.

Moving forward, Braun says the board has committed to working with its coordinator and facilitators in supporting their work more directly, as well as purchasing more toys, improving safety in some of the programs and increasing the cultural diversity among participants.

In addition, Braun feels there is a real optimism among board members that work through the AAFRC is better preparing kids for school. She says this optimism is based on data from the Early Development Instrument, the same tool that school divisions use to assess a students' school-readiness and the results over the past twenty years.

"We know that in the first five years of life that brain growth and readiness for school makes a huge difference in later factors in peoples' lives," she explained, "Everything from health to career choices to social interactions, etc. and so we feel positive about what we see in those EDI results and in what parents are giving us for feedback."

Entering its 22nd year of operation, Braun adds the resource centre is now in a good financial position, which she says gives the board the luxury of focusing on other things like the quality of programming.