Early Childhood F&ST is an asset-building, innovative and collaborative prevention program for children ages 3-5 years old and their family. It is a dynamic, effective program to empower and involve parents and to foster family development and cohesion. Its ultimate purpose is to help young children succeed at home, in early childhood programs, in the transition to elementary school and in the community.

The Early Childhood F&ST program helps young children succeed by creating structured opportunities for voluntary involvement in repeated, positive, personal, interactive, communicative and bonding experiences. These relationship-building interactions take place at many levels to maximize positive outcomes.

The program brings together 10-15 families for 10 weekly sessions of carefully crafted activities. The multi-family meeting format is the same each week, with structured encounters and activities between parent and pre-school child, between parent and the whole family, between parent and one other parent, between parent and a parent group and between parent and professionals.

To achieve improved child outcomes in the home, in the early childhood program, in the transition to elementary school and in the community, Early Childhood F&ST builds and strengthens the central protective factor of family cohesion by:

• Increasing parental involvement on multiple levels.
• Reducing the risk factor of chronic daily stress.
• Reducing the risk factor of substance abuse by the child and the family.
• Reducing the risk of chronic family conflict.

A collaborative team of five core partners runs the 10 weekly sessions. It is critical that the collaborative team be culturally representative of the families being served.

As with all adaptations of the Families & Schools Together Canada (F&ST Canada) approach, when families graduate from the weekly Early Childhood F&ST sessions they join F&STWORKS, an ongoing, collective of inter-dependent families who meet once a month over the course of the following two years.