The good news does not stop there! We offer a licensed, quality children’s program as part of YPEP where learners can interact with their children throughout the day. Qualified early childhood educators provide childcare and our staff are able to support and assist learners with parenting skills.
In addition to the academic work, YPEP offers parenting, life and work skills programming. Each year, learners have the opportunity to obtain First Aid, Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) and Food Safe certification. Lunch is provided daily for both learners and children. Parents learn budgeting and menu planning when they gather each week to decide on the lunch menu and later they cook what they have planned. We do not provide counselling, but do make referrals to community service providers as needed.
We know that parent time is so important for the social and emotional development of children, so there is Parent and Child Together (PACT) time every day. For half an hour, parents can focus entirely on their children. Often we think that when we are home with our children we have ‘one on one’ time with them, but it is easy to be distracted by other things (laundry, meal prep, homework, housework, our partner’s needs etc). The kids do not get our undivided attention then. PACT time provides that ‘real time’ for the learners and their children.
We are the only YPEP program in the East Kootenay. We are thrilled to have been named in a recent survey as one of the top three programs in Cranbrook for service to vulnerable parents with young children!
And the best news of all? It’s all free!
Interested in YPEP? Know someone who might be? We have continuous intake throughout our program year. Please contact:
Katherine Hough, Program Manager, khough@cbal.org
Beth Clausen, Program Coordinator, ypepbc@gmail.com
CBAL provides a similar program to YPEP in Castlegar, Trail and in the Boundry called Together to Learn. If you are interested in learning more, please contact:
Alana Murdoch, Community Literacy Coordinator - Castlegar, amurdoch@cbal.org
Sonia Tavares, Community Literacy Coordinator - Trail and Area, stavares@cbal.org
Erin Perkins, Community Literacy Coordinator - Boundry, eperkins@cbal.org
Katherine Hough
Manager Young Parents' Education Program - Cranbrook
Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy