Saint John's Early Childhood Hubs: A Foundation for Success
When we talk about improving educational outcomes, we often focus on what happens after children enter Kindergarten. But some of the most important learning takes place long before a child ever walks into a classroom on the first day of school.
For more than a decade, Saint John has been nurturing an innovative model that taps into that opportunity.
The city's two Early Childhood Hubs, located within Saint John the Baptist–King Edward School (established in 2009), and Hazen White–St. Francis School (established in 2021), were established through a partnership of the YMCA, BCAPI, the Family Resource Centre, Anglophone School District-South, Horizon Health Network, and the Department of Social Development. The mission was simple but ambitious: provide high-quality early childhood experiences for children living in neighbourhoods with high concentrations of poverty, to help ensure they arrive at Kindergarten ready to learn.
The inspiration for the Hubs can be traced to the work of the Saint John Early Childhood Development Coalition (2003), which brought together business, government, educators, health professionals and community organizations around a shared goal of improving outcomes for young children.
That work was informed by the 2010 Human Resources and Skills Development Canada research report entitled Understanding the Early Years – Greater Saint John (2010). The study painted a concerning picture of school readiness in the region. While most children were thriving, approximately one in five entered school with significant developmental vulnerabilities. Researchers found that children's vocabulary and early numeracy skills were below the Canadian average, with socioeconomic disadvantage identified as a major contributing factor.
Today, the Hubs, now known as Saint John Early Learning Centres, are operated by the YMCA, and provide preschool programming, family supports, parenting resources and Kindergarten readiness programming for children under five. By removing barriers to learning in those critical early years, the Hubs ensure children who might otherwise miss out on quality early learning have access to experiences that build language, literacy, numeracy and social-emotional skills before school begins.
Recent research from DataNB (formerly known as the New Brunswick Institute for Research, Data and Training) offers encouraging evidence that the model is reaching the families it was designed to serve. Their April 2025 evaluation entitled Quantitative Analysis of the Greater Saint John Early Childhood Hubs found that Hub participants are disproportionately from lower-income households and that the Hubs are successfully reducing barriers to preschool participation. Researchers also identified promising associations with patterns of health-care use, while emphasizing that additional years of data will be needed to measure long-term educational impacts.
That data may already exist.
Children who attend the Early Childhood Hubs may also participate in Early Years Evaluation – Direct Assessment (EYE-DA) pre-K testing administered by Family and Child Education (FACE) in Southern New Brunswick, and many subsequently enter schools participating in BCAPI’s When Children Succeed initiative.
Connecting these three initiatives by consolidating Early Childhood Hub participation information with EYE-DA participation data and When Children Succeed literacy and numeracy results, could allow us to begin to understand the impact of the Hub programs on the developmental continuum.
If the evidence demonstrates that children who participate in the Hubs achieve stronger outcomes than those who don’t, Saint John would have one of Canada's most compelling examples of how coordinated, sustained investment in the early years can change the trajectory of children's lives – and provide a blueprint for communities across the country.
Kyle Gulliver of RBC currently represents BCAPI on the current Early Childhood Hubs Advisory Committee. Joining him on the committee are representatives from the YMCA who manages the Hubs, Family and Child Education (FACE), Viva Therapeutic Services, Family Resource Centre, Anglophone School District South, the New Brunswick Department of Social Development, Horizon Health, and the New Brunswick Department of Public Health.
Read Understanding the Early Years: Greater Saint John, New Brunswick
https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2010/rhdcc-hrsdc/HS4-23-25-2009-eng.pdf
Read Quantitative Analysis of The Greater Saint John Early Childhood Hubs
https://unbscholar.dspace.lib.unb.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/e1084e99-135b-470a-b843-ba11a316c73e/content
Learn more about FACE
https://www.facenb.ca/services/early-years-evaluation-direct-assessment
Learn more about the When Children Succeed project
https://www.bcapi.ca/when-children-succeed-project
