The month of May 2023 has been proclaimed “Child Care Month” by Mayor Malcolm Brodie, the City of Richmond and the Province of BC in recognition of the valuable contributions of early childhood educators and child care providers who care for and nurture the well-being of children in our growing, inclusive community.

Three events will take place this month: a children’s art exhibition, a dinner celebration with a professional development workshop for educators and a symposium. 

• A children’s art exhibition, highlighting original creations submitted by local child care programs will be featured from Monday, May 8 to Wednesday, May 31on the Community Art Wall at the Brighouse Branch of the Richmond Public Library. The exhibition is co-hosted by the Child Care Development Advisory Committee and Richmond Public Library,
  
  
• ‘Celebrated and Inspired: A Child Care Workshop and Dinner’ will take place on Tuesday, May 23 and will feature a special keynote address by Dr. Mariana Brussoni titled ‘Unleashing the Power of Outdoor Risky Play: Creating Safe Outdoor Risky Play Environments for Children and Early Childhood Educators’. Tickets are available at www.richmondkids.ca/en/workshops/celebrated-inspired-child-care-workshop-dinner.
  
  
• A professional development symposium and celebration for educators took place on Saturday, May 6, titled, ‘Supporting Richmond’s Children: A Symposium for Early Childhood Educators, Child Care Providers and Parents’ featured interesting and relevant presentations related to the current state of Richmond’s children, nurturing in nature and outdoor play and supports for families.

In addition, this month, the City of Richmond is excited to share the 2022 Update to the 2017 to 2022 Child Care Needs Assessment and Strategy. This report is the final progress update to the current Strategy and provides a summary of the significant accomplishments and initiatives the City and the community have taken to address key child care priorities. 

• These include a 44 per cent increase in licensed child care spaces in Richmond since 2016. This represents an additional 2,535 new spaces, almost 1,000 of which are for infants and toddlers under the age of three years old. 
  
  
• Richmond currently has child care spaces for 35.6% of children age birth to twelve years old, a significant increase from 2016. 
  www.richmondkids.ca/en/workshops/celebrated-inspired-child-care-workshop-dinner
  
  
• The City is in process of developing a new child care strategy to guide initiatives and activities related to child care for the next ten years. As part of this, the City will engage families, child care providers and the broader community to assess the child care needs and priorities for Richmond. 

For more information on child care in Richmond, the Child Care Strategy and to view the 2022 Update report, please visit www.richmond.ca/culture/communitysocialdev/child-care.htm.