What we do

The Childcare Resource and Research Unit was established to:

• provide public education, resources and consultation on ECEC policy and research;
• foster and support research in various fields focusing on ECEC;
• carry out relevant research projects and publish the results;
• support, promote and provide communication on ECEC policy and research.

CRRU plays an integral role in the policy development process by:

• anticipating the need for information resources on particular ECEC issues;
• collecting, organizing, packaging and disseminating ECEC information resources;
• keeping up-to-date on new information and developments related to programs, research and policy in the ECEC field;
• facilitating communication among people involved in ECEC;
• providing interpretations of research and policy materials in a form useful for people with an interest in ECEC in Canada;
• undertaking research and evaluation as well as supporting and consulting with others involved in these activities.

Publications

ECEC in Canada

(Formerly “Child care in Canada: Provinces and territories”)
CRRU periodically assembles pan-Canadian data about ECEC. This publication provides profiles of ECEC services in each province/territory including information on spaces, funding, regulation, training, and more. Tables in the publication present useful comparative data across the country, as well as trends across time. The 2006 edition ( 2007) will be the seventh edition for CRRU. This major CRRU publication is available in print or online.

Web-based resources

Part of CRRU's mandate is to collect, organize and synthesize ECEC information resources and to make them widely available. CRRU’s website supports this mandate.

CRRU’s website collects and provides links to noteworthy ECEC research and resources, policy developments, news clippings, links and events. The website is updated with new materials on a weekly basis. A weekly email notifier provides links to new resources and is available for sign-up on the home page.

• ISSUE Files
  CRRU collects and organizes online readings about topical issues in early childhood education and care policy and research. Topics include “Proposed changes to Quebec's child care system”, "Maternity and parental leave", “Issues and challenges in rural child care” and more.
• Current Developments in ECEC
  This resource is a collection of online documents about current early childhood education and care policy and program delivery issues in each province/territory and nationally.

Resource collection and CIRC online catalogue

Until 2007, CRRU maintained a comprehensive resource collection of materials on ECEC and related topics, including child and family services, work and family issues, women’s labour force participation, maternity and parental leave, and more. Materials are catalogued according to a subject classification system developed specifically for this collection and can be located online through a searchable database called Childcare Information Resource Collection (CIRC). The collection includes materials from federal, provincial, and municipal governments (both Canadian and foreign), reports from non-governmental organizations, books, periodicals, journal articles, and videotapes. There are more than 21,000 documents in the CIRC database.

Due to budget cutbacks, the resource room is not available at the present time. The CIRC database is still available online and is a valuable research tool but is not being updated.