Our diagnosis :
- Children born into low-income families are more likely to develop physical and cognitive developmental delays.1
- An aggravating factor is that the poorest families are less likely to attend day-care centers : 5% of children from low-income families attend day-care centers, compared with 22% of children from wealthier families.2
- Significant learning gaps from the start of school : a 500-word gap between children from low-income families and those from affluent families at the start of first grade.3
- A developmental delay that has a lasting impact on young people’s academic and professional success : 47% of people access qualified employment following reinforced support during early childhood (the Abecedarian scheme tested in the United States in the 1970s), compared with 27% of people who did not benefit from such support.4
Our aim
Break Poverty is committed to providing children from low-income families with the same educational opportunities as children from high-income families.
The type of intervention we can offer support for
- Innovative early-learning programs (cognitive, language, etc.) to boost children’s learning capacities from the earliest age.
- Parenting support schemes to help the most disadvantaged parents support their children’s early development
- The development of individual and collective childcare facilities adapted to the life constraints of the most vulnerable families (standard of living, staggered working hours, language skills, etc.).
PROJECTS FINANCED BY BREAK POVERTY IN SUPPORT OF EARLY CHILDHOOD :
The Dotation d’Action Territoriale (DAT) is a Break Poverty program. This is a voluntary allocation by the company, of up to 2% of its net income, to finance projects to combat poverty among young people in its territory.
The company undertakes to support one or more local projects of its choice over a three-year period.
The projects supported by Break Poverty are rigorously selected according to 4 main criteria :
- Relevance : the proposed action meets the expressed social need
- Effectiveness : the proposed action works and has already demonstrated its effectiveness in the local area (or in another area).
- Organizational solidity : the action is capable of scaling up and meeting its objectives.
- Synergy with the ecosystem : the action demonstrates synergies with existing projects.
EPE
Train all early childhood professionals and raise awareness among parents, to prevent developmental delays in 0-3 year olds.
DULALA
Development of language learning for children through the creation of innovative teaching tools for professionals and language learning workshops for children.
GEPETTO
Childcare for children aged 0 to 13 in families’ homes, with atypical working hours, for young parents in single-parent families or low-income couples, in priority neighborhoods.
COUP DE POUCE
Coup de Pouce clubs, made up of 5 to 6 children, are mainly aimed at pupils who are weak in their acquisition of knowledge because they have had few opportunities to discover it in their socio-familial environment, and to develop their appetite, motivation and so on.
MAISON DES FAMILLES
Welcoming and supporting isolated and/or vulnerable families: empowering families, reducing their isolation, social, cultural and economic vulnerability, linking families, linking with local players and mainstream services…
PPE PAS À PAS, L’ENFANT
Training for early childhood professionals and family workshops to promote reading among toddlers and raise awareness among families of the dangers of overexposure to screens.
1 Direction de la santé publique (2011), les inégalités sociales de santé, Agence de la santé et des services sociaux de Montréal
2 DREES (2017), Le choix de la crèche comme mode d’accueil, entre bénéfices pour l’enfant et adaptation aux contraintes
3 Délégation Interministérielle à la prévention et à la lutte contre la pauvreté (2018), Stratégie nationale de lutte contre la pauvreté
4 Terra Nova (2017), Investissons dans la petite enfance – l’égalité des chances se joue avant la maternelle
Photo credits : Andrew Ebrahim – Unsplash, Yankrukov – Pexels, Stephen Andrews – Pexels, CDC library – Pexels, Rethaferguson – Pexels, Panel Danilyuk – Pexels.
