HIPPY Nanaimo at Central Vancouver Island Multicultural Society (CVIMS)

Since 1979, CVIMS has provided community services that help newcomers settle in Canada. These include employment programs, settlement services, child-minding services, and LINC (Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada) classes. These programs, in addition to their Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program, serve approximately 1500 clients annually.

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Their programs are targeted to all immigrant families including refugees. Their employment programs are available to Canadian-born families as well.

 

For the 2019-2020 program year, CVIMS will employ three HIPPY Home Visitors (two full-time and one part-time) and one HIPPY Manager to serve the Ladysmith and Parksville areas, including Port Alberni. This year they will serve 24 families with 36 children who have emigrated from five different countries and speak seven different languages. Some years the number of countries emigrated from and languages spoken can reach 15 in number.

 

Insight into the HIPPY Program:

“The HIPPY program covers a wide range of content which makes my son’s study easier at school”.  A.G.

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“HIPPY program gives me more strength and self-esteem, makes me feel connected.  I like coming to Group Meetings because I talk to other mothers who have different experiences and ideas and I learn about my community”. M.B.

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“It was a delight to be a beneficiary of HIPPY program. My kids are doing very well in school and my English language has improved…due to this program”. S.K.

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“I am a very proud mother of a child who has been attending this HIPPY program. Nurturing and inspiring her to learn was a great achievement for me as a mother, especially seeing her learning progress.  I highly recommend to other parents to do HIPPY program as well”.  I.B.

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Success Story:

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Clair has always believed in the importance of early childhood education. She immigrated to Canada with her husband from China and their daughter was born shortly after their arrival in 2014. Clair found out about the HIPPY program through a friend and joined with her daughter. As a mother, she finds that having a guideline and following the curriculum is especially helpful:

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“Every mother would like to teach her kid. HIPPY can push us every day. It’s a guideline for me, what I can teach to my daughter. I just follow the materials.”

 

After she completed the first year of HIPPY, Clair was so impressed with the program that she decided to bring it to China. Acting as a bridge between a partner non-profit organization in China, HIPPY Canada and HIPPY International, she started the process in 2018.

 

In March 2019, the HIPPY project officially started pilot work in Ye County, Henan Province, China. In the first phase, eight Home Visitors were recruited and trained, and 54 families are currently enrolled in the program. Clair explains that a lot of grandparents participate in the HIPPY program with their grandchildren because the parents moved to the city to find work:

 

“They want good for their grandkids, but don’t have the methods. Now, they have received tools. They are so excited and appreciative because kids are the future of every family. HIPPY gave these families a lot of hope.”

 

Clair hopes that the program can grow quickly and benefit lots of poor families. HIPPY China plans to recruit a total of 100 families to enter the program before the end of this year.

 

For more information, please visit: https://www.cvims.org