AHS considers parent involvement to be integral to our community. Hearing parents' perspectives, teachings and opinions is important to growing our community while gaining a deeper understanding of what our children, and families require. Parent involvement can look different from parent to parent, community to community, and we encourage centers to seek solutions that seem both realistic and exciting for your community overall.
Maggie Biagioni is a Cree woman whose two children attend Kermode Daycare Centre AHS in Terrace, BC.
Maggie is a graduate of AHS herself, having attended the Comox Valley Aboriginal Head Start in Courtenay, BC. She notes that regionally it’s very different due to the separate cultural Indigenous practices between Terrace and Courtenay.
Maggie says that Kermode was the only daycare she wanted her children to go to, as it is a “safe space for Indigenous children and it’s important for [their] cultural safety, even though it is not [their] direct [Cree] culture.”
Maggie has begun working with Kermode to incorporate Cree into the classroom - providing language cards to the center to ensure her children are experiencing Cree exposure at daycare as well as at home.
Maggie notes that she has seen a big positive change and growth in her daughter when she started speaking Cree with her. In collaboration with Sally, the ECE I/T in her daughter's classroom, as well as other Educators at Kermode they work together to incorporate Cree into her daughter’s routine.
Sally has been working with Kermode for almost a year, and is not originally from Canada, Sally is from the Philippines. She loves working with kids and always knew that was what she wanted to do, she appreciates being able to be an educator at a small daycare and the chance to learn more and work alongside the Indigenous community. Having her daughter amongst community is “priceless,” Maggie says.
Mikaela Daigle is Metis parent with two kids. She is part of the Parents Advisory Council (PAC) at Kermode Daycare AHS. She started at Kermode working at the front desk, and describes Kermode staff as “lifesavers” and “like family.”
“I like to be a very involved parent,” she says. “Because I’m willing, they picked me [to be on the Parents Advisory Council].”
Having a parent Advisory Councils is a great way to build community and encourage parental involvement, and ensure that Parent voices are heard. It’s something we strongly advise AHS centers to build out.
Mikaela now works as a Finance Assistant at Kermode, and with one child currently enrolled at Kermode Daycare AHS. Those at Kermode describe Mikaela as willing to do whatever you need and go above and beyond.
She’s dressed up on multiple occasions for Kermode events - as an alien, as the Grinch, just for the kids.
“Who else would do that?” Another Kermode staff member says with a laugh.