Barbara Goyer and Hillel Goelman aim to better understand children’s healthy development

Related Links

• Human Early Learning Partnership
• CHILD Project

Generating new understanding about
healthy communities

UBC’s Hillel Goelman and Barbara Goyer speak enthusiastically about helping children thrive, working with community agencies, and assisting government in the evaluation of family policy.

In fact, they are describing their ambitious new project bringing researchers, professionals and policy-makers together for a bold purpose -- to build better communities for children.

"A child's early years are extremely important," says Goelman, UBC professor with the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), and director of the 10 complementary studies known as the Consortium for Health, Intervention, Learning and Development (CHILD) project. "This research will help identify ways to provide better support for children -- including children at risk - and their parents, and make a real difference in their lives."

The project has received $2.3 million from the federal government, partly because of the innovative collaboration it is fostering across professions and community agencies. Organizations like the Children's and Women's Health Centre, First Nations Partnership Program, and the Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre will work hand in hand with public health nurses, university researchers and graduate students.

Explains Goyer, CHILD co-ordinator, "We’re bringing planners together with people on the front lines to understand how a village raises a child."

Teams of interdisciplinary "community-builders" will focus on four areas: screening and intervention, early child development in aboriginal communities, social policy evaluation, and program interventions for children and families. "A child's healthy development is a little like a Rubik's cube," says Goelman. "It's made up of medical, social and psychological dimensions. We aim to better understand how it all fits together."

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