UpStart formed in 1998 as the Calgary Children’s Initiative. Today, UpStart is a dynamic, community-based model partnering with child- and youth-serving sectors. We partner with service providers, citizens, researchers and funders with a common goal: helping children become healthy, caring, responsible adults. Using our collective influence, UpStart builds lasting change in our communities.

By championing a shift in high-level policy, practices and systems toward pro-child, pro-youth and pro-parenting approaches, we  address the challenges and issues facing young people today.

Priorities

UpStart has identified priority areas to focus our work and effort as we move forward:

• Early Years
• High School Completion
• School and Community Collaboration
• Aboriginal Youth Education

Strategies

Early Years / School Readiness

• Support the development of a Provincial Early Years Framework.
• Actively engage in Alberta Education’s Early Development Instrument Early Child Mapping Initiatives.
• Support strong community research partners with knowledge translation and mobilization.

School Community Collaboration

• Engage Re-Imagining Schools to affect province-wide changes
• Strengthen and support funding around after-school programming
• Build and support community collaborative networks.

High School Completion

• Develop a comprehensive framework that supports high school completion.

Aboriginal Youth Education

• Full Circle holistic model of service delivery for programs to support Aboriginal youth and their families.

Research & Evaluation

• Work with the Calgary community to develop high level community outcomes related to our priority areas and measure bi-annually.
• Support knowledge translation and mobilization
  • Community Perinatal Care CPC Study
  • Community Parenting Plan Evaluation
  • Bright From the Start
  • APrON Study
• Support School Facility Grant Evaluation and Calgary After School Evaluation
• Establish a repository for data on high school completion for Calgary and area.