Ryerson Centre for Children, Youth and Families

Research Centre

Ryerson faculty members from across the University working in the area of children, families and communities have come together from a variety of disciplines to establish a research centre with a focus on children, youth and families.  This research centre is a research division of the Centre for Children Youth and Families.

Mission

As the reseach division of the CCYF, our mission is to promote the well being of children, families and communities through collaborative research and dissemination to scholars, practitioners and community members

Goals

• To increase Ryerson's visibility as an international institution in research in the area of children, youth, families and communities
• To bring faculty from a variety of disciplines together to create interdisciplinary research interest groups/teams that can lead to proposal submissions
• To provide support to that faculty via research assistants
• To link with the local community to create new and creative community partnerships and to enhance current partnerships
• To support research activities at Ryerson's Early Learning Centre & Gerrard Resource Centre
• To utilize he extensive GRC curriculum resources library and the Voices Project family support library
• To maintain a listserv & website that will post newletters, policy briefs, relevant conferences etc.
• To provide a "May Panel" speaker series for the university and local community
• To attract and provide research and experiential interdisciplinary learning opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students at Ryerson
• To disseminate results via the curriculum at Ryerson
• To link with The Chang School of Continuing Education Family Supports Certificate

Third Annual Symposium

Our third annual symposium was held on May 16th, 2008 at Ryerson University.  There were over 200 people in attendance, representing many organizations from across the city. The topic for discussion was Meeting the needs of young English language learners, with a focus on how early childhood settings can support children’s first languages as they learn English.

The event included panel presentations from Heather Anderson-Ross (Early Literacy Specialist, Macaulay Child Development Centre), Rachel Langford (Director, School of Early Childhood Education, Ryerson University), Dianne Riehl (Program Coordinator, Early Years, Toronto District School Board), and Roma Chumak-Horbatsch (Associate Professor, Ryerson University).

We would like to thank our co-sponsors: Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario, Ryerson MA Program in Early Childhood Studies, Ryerson School of Early Childhood Education, The Macaulay Child Development Centre and Toronto Children’s Services; the graduate students that presented their identity text bilingual books and helped during the event, as well as everyone that attended this memorable event.

Stay tuned for the announcement of next year’s event!

Yinka Fakunle
Research Assistant, Ryerson Center for Children, Youth and Families
MA Candidate, Early Childhood Studies, Ryerson University

Would you like to be signed up to the Children, Youth and Families Listserv?

Please contact:

Dr Rachel Berman, School of Early Childhood Education
rcberman@ryerson.ca

or

Dr. Patrizia Albanese, Department of Sociology
plabanes@arts.ryerson.ca