The District supports Early Years Professionals and Operators by providing opportunities for engagement, learning and funding support. Read more about these opportunities below.
| Early Years Workshop Series |
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The District offers an Early Years Workshop Series geared to Early Childhood Educators and other Early Learning Professionals. These workshops are offered throughout the year and occur virtually and in-person. If you are an Early Learning Professional located in the Muskoka community and you would like to receive an invitation to upcoming workshops, please complete this form to be added to our workshop distribution list. Please note that your professional portfolio must include providing services to young children in the Muskoka community for you to be eligible to register for Early Years Workshops. If you practice outside of Muskoka region, please contact Children's Services via email or phone 705-645-2412 ext. 4140 to inquire about space availability. |
| Resources |
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Early Years Muskoka Professional Development Newsletters Sign up to receive these monthly Professional Development Newsletters! |
| Wage Enhancement Grants |
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The Ontario government has made an ongoing funding commitment to support a wage enhancement for eligible child care professionals working in licensed child care settings. The Wage Enhancement Grant (WEG) will help retain Registered Early Childhood Educators (RECEs), and support access to stable, high-quality child care programs for children in Ontario. The wage enhancement will also help to close the wage gap between RECEs working in kindergarten programs and RECEs/other child care program staff working in licensed child care settings. The Wage Enhancement Grant supports an increase of up to $2 per hour, plus 17.5 percent benefits for licensed program staff and home visitors. In addition, the Home Child Care Enhancement Grant supports an increase of up to $20 per day for eligible, approved home child care providers. Licensed child care operators must apply annually for Wage Enhancement Funding. Licensed child care operators for both centre-based and home-based programs that were open and licensed in the previous year, are eligible to apply for the Wage Enhancement Funding initiative. Centres and agencies that open in the current year may be eligible for WEG/HCCEG once they begin operations. If you are an eligible operator and would like to apply for Wage Enhancement Grant funding or if you have questions regarding Wage Enhancement Grants, please send us an email or call 705-645-2412 ext. 4397. |