HIPPY Goes Virtual:
Stabilizing the Connection
With the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the Mothers Matter Centre (MMC) has been faced with the urgent need to adapt a new strategy for delivery of Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) – an early learning program for low-income refugee and Indigenous children ages three to five.
The current pandemic has reinforced the need for HIPPY to go virtual with digital technology during the upcoming 2020-21 program year. Without the continuation of support in these critical times, vulnerable refugee and Indigenous children from isolated homes will lose access to programs, like HIPPY, that close school readiness gaps.
The ability for HIPPY to communicate with isolated families and support the educational success of children will depend on securing reliable tablets for participants.
We are pleased to share that we have nearly hit its fundraising goal of $250,000 to provide tablets to HIPPY families across Canada for the upcoming program year.
We need to reach our target to provide a tablet to every HIPPY family across the country for Fall 2020. Please consider donating to help us ensure that no family gets left behind.
How Can You Help? 
By donating to the HIPPY Goes Virtual campaign, you will be directly supporting a family to continue in HIPPY with their own tablet, which is theirs to keep beyond the program. Through tablets, families will be able to stay connected to their Home Visitors, families, and greater communities. With many schools continuing to transition to an online format, the provision of tablets for families will also ensure that already vulnerable children do not fall even further behind in an increasingly digital world.
Please click here to support HIPPY Goes Virtual through helping us provide tablets, family by family.
If you donate $200 or more and would like to be identified as the donor to the family that receives your tablet, please indicate so in the “message” section of the donation form.
As countries around the world continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mothers Matter Centre remains committed to innovating solutions that ensure the most vulnerable communities in Canada receive the support and resources necessary to maintain the wellbeing and health of their families.
| Introducing SMART (Supporting Mothers and Raising Toddlers)
Supporting Mothers and Raising Toddlers (SMART) is a 39-week play-based learning program for children aged 18 to 36 months. It focuses on deepening parent-child bonds, fostering healthy early childhood development, increasing connections to community resources, and strengthening social networks.
It is a home visitation program that, in the context of the ‘new normal,’ can be delivered virtually.
SMART is designed to facilitate and strengthen the bond between mother and child through engagement in play-based learning activities. In addition to supporting children’s holistic development and school readiness, SMART also encourages mothers to connect with their peers and increases their community engagement.
For information about the SMART program, please click here.
Mothers Matter Centre National Office
The national office is the licensing body of HIPPY and other programs that works with community partners to oversee program implementation, training, and performance management. The national office leads program innovation development and supports public awareness of its programs.
Since our inception, the Mothers Matter Centre has transformed over 42,000 lives. We helped more than 15,000 mothers gain new skills and abilities essential to strengthening mother-child relationships. This means their children and families were better prepared to get the most from their early school experiences.
| Programs & Innovations
Multicultural Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) supports the mother as the first and most important teacher of her child while addressing issues that immigrants and refugees confront when they arrive in their new country, such as language and cultural barriers. LEARN MORE
Indigenous Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) works with Indigenous families in land-based and urban communities to build positive experiences in education and to strengthen their capacity to support learning using a culturally relevant curriculum. LEARN MORE
Our newcomer innovations are designed to help refugee families as they integrate themselves into a new society and their children into Canadian schools. We undertake research to understand the challenges that refugee families face on arrival and implement best practices to support refugee families’ settlement. LEARN MORE
Bond to Literacy is a 12-week early literacy program for low-income, disadvantaged families who struggle with issues that may prevent them from making a long-term commitment to the regular HIPPY curriculum. The program is designed to demand less of families while still providing learning tools and support. LEARN MORE
Supporting Mothers and Raising Toddlers (SMART) is designed to support parents of children ages 18 months to three years of age and focuses on fostering healthy early childhood development, increasing connections to community resources, strengthening social networks, and deepening parent-child bonds. LEARN MORE
Adopt-a-Reader is a two-week literacy campaign where HIPPY families “adopt” non-HIPPY families from their community by guiding them through daily activities that focus on parent-child bonding through reading activities. The mother-to-mother community-centred approach allows the campaign to reach even the most isolated families. LEARN MORE
Literacy Plus is a practitioners’ guide to adding adult literacy activities to family service programs. It takes an individualized approach to English language learning and provides mothers with the opportunity to converse in English, allowing them to utilize public service systems and learn new skills that otherwise would have been inaccessible. LEARN MORE
Practicing Citizenship aims increase immigrant women’s participation in Canadian society through a practical, hands-on program in Canadian history and democracy, practical community experience, mentoring and literacy training. Participants make informed decisions about their settlement and improve their understanding of life in Canada. LEARN MORE
Care, Identity, and Inclusion (CII) is a guided community discussion series that supports parents in dialogue about how and when they share their culture with their children. The discussions explore a series of themes such as: how intergenerational cultural sharing preserves values, fosters high-quality family relationships, and contributes to social inclusion. LEARN MORE
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