Approach
The approach to program development is holistic, supporting the child and family consistently from prenatal through the preschool years. The intent is to ensure that children have “Better Beginnings” in all their social environments, commencing with family and including their immediate neighbourhood and local community.
A “management from beside” approach places an emphasis on the relationships between managers, staff, volunteers and community members. The characteristics of this management style include process orientation, people centeredness, hiring from within, democratic leadership, boundary diffusion and modelling.
process orientation: an emphasis on process and developing social relations among people, rather than focussing on infrastructure, hierarchy and outcome
people centeredness: has three main features- a focus on all people, not exclusively clients; a respect and acceptance of where people are currently at, not where it would be useful for the organization; and the creation of an environment for all people to develop and grow
hiring from within: when possible staff are recruited from within the community
democratic leadership: an approach to management that requires that staff share equally in the decision-making and power-sharing
boundary diffusion: involves the integration and overlap of personal and professional boundaries among staff in terms of roles, work and space
modelling: refers to patterning and reinforcing particular kinds of behaviour in order to emphasize and support values and skills inherent to that behaviour
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