A Steinbach daycare for immigrant and refugee children has been recognized by the federal government as the best of its kind.

Red River College runs an adult language training centre and complementary childminding centre out of Grace Mennonite Church in Steinbach. Because the centre pulls funding from Immigration Refugee Citizenship Canada, it is inspected every year to ensure its practices are up to current regulations.

When the federal government monitor made her annual rounds this year, Training Centre Program Manager Naomi Frey says the visit took an unexpected turn.

“She started taking photos and telling us that our daycare had to be shown nationally,” describes Frey, “she said that childminding centres so often are just trying to meet the standard and it would be great if we would be able to share how we go above and beyond that.”

Frey admits that the daycare team work tirelessly to ensure that they have quality programming, but never dreamed of becoming an example to be emulated nationwide.

“We were elated,” exclaimed Frey, “We couldn’t believe it actually. We knew we had been trying our very best and we knew that we were meeting the standard, but we had no idea that we were accomplishing so much more than that.”

Supervisor Nalini Ranganath plays with some of the children at the daycare centre.

Frey says there were several pieces involved in accidentally achieving this honor. She notes that the daycare embraces the multicultural nature of their children and decorates the space with photos, toys, furniture, and words from all across the globe to ensure the space feels familiar to children. The facility is also staffed by people who can speak several languages, helping the kids to feel heard and understood. In addition to all of that, Frey notes that many immigrant parents attending the nearby English classes would not have the opportunity to do so if it were not for the supplementary daycare. The two venues work together to both welcome new families to the area and prepare them with the skills they need for life. "It's a very empathetic approach," she indicates.

Frey commends Daycare Supervisor Nalini Ranganath who spends much of her time researching ways to better the space. Ranganath will be presenting on her findings and experience at a conference in Toronto in the coming months.

The language centre instructs roughly 150 students per year meanwhile the daycare centre typically operates at its 25 child capacity.

“We are in a small rural area, not a huge urban city where we have access to all sorts of other amenities,” comments Frey “so this will probably very useful to other small centres across Canada.”