This year, Childreach’s celebrates 50 years of community service providing FREE, accessible, programming for families with young children!
At Childreach we support families and caregivers to build strong foundations in the early years so that all children have the best start in life. As a child and Family Centre, we specialize in working with families to lessen the stress of parenting. We offer parent-child drop-in programs, infant playgroups and infant massage as well as our award-winning Wild Child outdoor play program in community nature areas across London.
Our programming is delivered through a multi-modal approach to ensure families can access the support that is most comfortable to them. Our approach offers in-house, virtual and community-based programming aimed at supporting marginalized populations.
At Childreach, we believe the best way to support a child is through supporting their parents.
What do you want people to know about how you or your organization is creating change in our community?
At Childreach, our team of Early Childhood Educators provide FREE, accessible, early learning programming across London. Childreach drop-in programs are offered in multiple environments – indoors at Childreach, Family Centre Huron Heights, libraries, community centres and outdoors at community green spaces such as Westminster Ponds, Euston Park/The Coves and Medway Valley. We meet families where they are at in accessible, barrier free environments across our community in an effort to improve outcomes for London families.
In all aspects of service delivery, our focus is on supporting parents and children through literacy-rich activities like reading, storytelling, and sing-alongs. These programs help build foundational literacy skills like speaking, listening, reading, and writing through play and conversation, setting children up for lifelong success.
Childreach also offers our one-of- a-kind Wild Child program. Wild Child is a facilitated, outdoor playgroup that promotes child-led adventures in community green spaces and parks. For 10 years, Wild Child has introduced families to the concept of risky play where parents and children learn to assess the natural environment, and through child-led learning determine their own level of adventure.
In all we do, we create meaningful connections with children & families through the power of play – because in the early years play is learning.
What are you working on that you would like to share with the community?
On October 22, Childreach officially opened a NEW community program location at Family Centre Huron Heights in Northeast London, 1370 Huron St., adjacent to St. Anne School. Childreach invites the community to drop-in to the Family Centre to play, learn and get connected to a community service.
Launched this fall, Childreach offers a NEW PA Day Wild Child day camp program for school-age children https://www.eventbrite.ca/.../wild-child-pa-day-camp... and Childreach will soon launch its 2026 Wild Child summer day camp program https://www.childreach.on.ca/day-camp
Please share with us why you are a Pillar Nonprofit Network Member. What have you gained from being a Pillar Member?
Childreach has been a Pillar member for two decades! Over the years, Pillar’s support has helped Childreach expand our reach, and achieve our goal to improve outcomes for families in our community. Along the way our Board and staff have benefitted from training programs tailored to the non-profit sector that have strengthened our governance practices, informed our service delivery and focused our community impact.
Contact Name: Yvette Scrivener
Contact Email: yscrivener@childreach.on.ca
Website: www.childreach.on.ca
Link to featured initiative, project, or campaign: https://www.32auctions.com/childreach. We’re celebrating our 50 years of service milestone with an on-line fundraising auction.