About Us
ECELC
The Edmonton Council for Early Learning and Care builds on existing capacities and provides leadership in managing, planning and supporting the development of a system of high-quality early learning and care services in Edmonton, with an emphasis on meeting the needs of low-income and vulnerable families.
Mission
To design, promote, and build an integrated system of early learning and care that: is publicly managed; is supported by public funding; has a workforce that is appropriately educated and well supported; coordinates the range of services needed to support young children and their families; and contributes to eliminating poverty.
Vision
Early learning and care for all children that is high in quality, universally available, accessible, affordable, and responsive to the diversity of individual children and their families.
Guiding Principles
Work toward developing an integrated system of early learning and care must be informed by, and conform to, human rights principles.
Indigenous perspectives and guidance are required because of the structural conditions created by our long history of discrimination.
Individuals and families from diverse cultures must be engaged in advisory, planning, service delivery, and regulatory roles.
Special efforts are required to identify, engage with, and respond to families who may be in need of and entitled to services but who, for whatever reason, are not accessing services.
Supports that optimize early child development must be easily accessible as needed on a universal basis.
Supports must be adapted, as necessary, for the specific needs of children and their families.
Supports must be high in quality.
Access to social, health, and educational systems must be equitable and timely.
Design, promotion, policy development, and implementation should be guided, where possible, by research-based evidence.
Eliminating childhood poverty requires the elimination of family poverty.
Eliminating the experience of poverty from childhood requires structural change and long-term commitments.
Edmonton can lead by example.
Terms of Reference
Find out everything you always wanted to know about the Edmonton Council for Early Learning and Care in our Terms of Reference. The document includes detailed information on our:
Communications Commitment
Terms and Conditions
Meetings
Decision-Making Process
Dispute Resolution
Confidentiality and Ethical Conduct
No “Legal” Partnership
Background (Appendix A)
Purpose
Vision
Mission
Guiding Principles
Functions
Membership
Roles and Responsibilities
Principles for Working Together
Measures of Success
Council Members
The Edmonton Council for Early Learning and Care comprises institutional and community partners, each bringing their unique perspective, resources, skills and expertise toward developing an integrated system of early learning and care.
Institutional partners represent municipal and provincial government, associated agencies, contracted organizations, elected boards, and publicly governed services that have legislative and/or regulatory responsibilities for functions that are relevant for managing and planning early learning and care.
Community partners represent organizations that have expertise in areas related to managing and planning early learning and care.
Click on the link to view our current Council.
Outcomes and Actions for 2023 and Beyond
To achieve the objective of Edmonton having a system of effective planning and management for early learning and care, the ECELC developed outcomes and actions to guide the Council’s work to promote and advance high-quality, affordable, accessible, and inclusive early learning and care that meets the needs of vulnerable children and their families.
Click on the link to view or download ECELC Work Plan 2022/2023
Our History
The first official meeting of the Edmonton Council for Early Learning and Care (ECELC) was held on March 7, 2019, but the Council’s genesis story begins a few years earlier. In 2014, Edmonton’s mayor, Don Iveson, created the Mayor’s Task Force for the Elimination of Poverty in Edmonton. The Task Force evolved into a city-wide initiative, EndPovertyEdmonton, with the goal of ending poverty in the city within a generation. EndPovertyEdmonton identified six “game changers” critical for eliminating poverty: racism; livable incomes; affordable housing; accessible and affordable transit; mental health and addictions; and high-quality affordable child care.