Coalition promotes positive environment for children

By Jamie Rieger

Cypress Early Childhood Coalition has been around for a couple years now and would like to see more people get involved with the group that is focused on early childhood development and involving the community in activities in a positive environment that will encourage young people to thrive.

“We are a group of interested citizens from all across the community of Cypress County and that common interest is early childhood development,” said Marilyn Fisher, community resource coordinator.

The group has been organized for the past two years, but began holding meetings about three years ago.

When they first organized, one of their first tasks was to determine what was available for young people and families in the villages and hamlets in Cypress County.

“We spent a good portion of last year mapping all of the assets in the community for young children, like parks, museums, community halls, and skating rinks and we ended up with 240 assets in Cypress County,” she said.

One of the group’s core beliefs is “positive experiences influence brain development at the most critical time (0-6 years of age).”

As they go forward with their goal of promoting community awareness to the importance of positive early childhood development, they would like to see more people get involved.

“We would like to get more people involved, especially in the Schuler and Walsh areas,” said Fisher.

Some of the things the are doing and would like others to help in doing is in organizing community activities that include positive environments for children.

“We are trying to encourage childhood activities in their community events,” said Fisher adding that they can look at what is currently available in their communities, then identify and address any gaps.

They recently got involved at the recent anniversary celebration at Premium Sausage in Seven Persons, by hosting the bouncy castle for young visitors.

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