Introduction
Early childhood development (birth to age five) lays the foundation for the children’s future success. Good development requires not only caring parents but also a healthy environment and qualified teachers to help the children grow intellectually and socially. Evidence shows that children who attend preschool or other early education programs generally perform better academically and socially their children who have little or no early education (Mitchell, 2000). Scientific researches have shown that early experience potentially influences brain development. Thus, early childhood education builds up the brain’s controlled behavioral, cognitive and linguistic capacity. Besides, children should have adult care when their parents need to go to work. Attending preschools not only provides children the necessary education but also the qualified care. Furthermore, childcare and child development are crucial to a city’s economic stability in which the City of Vancouver has affirmed (City of Vancouver, 2002).
The City of Vancouver has calculated 72% of children in need of care in the downtown area will rely on licensed facilities, while another 50% of this kind of children out of downtown have their needs met through licensed facilities (City of Richmond, 2002). A major childcare deficit occurs in infant/toddler care and school age care. As the City of Vancouver has recognized that “there is a critical shortage of affordable, licensed quality childcare for children of working parents and insufficient access to quality early childhood programs for all children in the city” (City of Vancouver, 1990), the municipal government has committed to increase licensed childcare space by designing future childcare services under the hub concept, which establishes linkages between childcare centers, family day cares, and other services for children and families.
Using a Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) is an effective way to locate the best preschool sites in Vancouver. MCE is a decison making tool that evaluates several criteria in order to come up with a suitability result. One of the aggregation methods in MCE is the Weight Linear Combination (WLC), which allows different factors trading off with each other according to each factor's weight of relative importance. In this project, I used MCE with WLC to answer a spatial problem: what are the best preschool sites in the City of Vancouver? I produced one result that is in favour of the City of Vancouver and the other that is in favour of business groups. Childcare providers, government officials, city planners, business groups, not-for-profit organizations, and parents could get general information from this project about existing childcare service locations and future preschool suitable sites.
Reference List
City of Richmond. (2002). 2001-2006 child care needs assessment: City of Richmond. Retrieved November 21, 2006, from http://www.richmond.ca/__shared/assets/full_report6817.pdf
City of Vancouver. (2002). Childcare strategic plan “moving forward”- consultation report back. Retrieved November 24, 2006, from http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/020423/a13.htm
City of Vancovuer. (1993). Childcare design guidelines. Retrieved November 21, 2006, from www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs/guidelines/C017.pdf
City of Vancouver. (1990). Civic childcare strategy. Retrieved November 24, 2006, from http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs/socialplanning/initiatives/childcare/ccstrategy3.htm
Mitchell, A.W. (2002). Early childhood development: cornerstone of a healthy community. Retrieved November 24, 2006, from http://www.maryblackfoundation.org/files/Early%20Childhood%20Development.pdf