Parent Education allows us to reach and support parents with practical, relevant materials, products and resources to help parents become the parents they want and need to be.

Get Set For Life

Get Set For Life is a national public education campaign created by Kids' CBC, Invest in Kids, Canadian Living and Coup de pouce magazines. It is generously supported by Unilever Canada, makers of Lipton and Sunlight products. With the help of the animated Zap Family, Get Set For Life brings you Comfort, Play & Teach^TM ideas along with other helpful parenting information, in several ways.

Kids' CBC features entertaining, educational television programming that encourages preschoolers to be creative and optimistic, solve problems, get along with others and, above all, have fun! Between shows, the hosts on Kids' CBC model behaviour and develop a positive relationship with children that encourages them to face life with enthusiasm and confidence. Kids' CBC is all about letting children take the lead and explore their world, while feeling secure and confident enough to do so.

Kids' CBC airs weekdays from 7-noon, Saturdays from 6-noon, and Sundays from 6am-8am.

Canadian Living and Coup de pouce are pleased to be founding partners and the print media sponsors for Get Set For Life. With a combined monthly audience of almost 6 million readers, the magazines help bring the Get Set For Life message to parents across Canada. In addition to running ads promoting Get Set For Life, Canadian Living and Coup de pouce work with Invest in Kids to create the Comfort, Play & Teach booklets, distributed in all subscriber copies each October. Based on Comfort, Play & Teach: A Positive Approach to Parenting^TM, the booklets explore a different aspect of a child's development and offer parents various activities to incorporate into their daily routines with their baby, toddler or pre-schooler. It's all part of the commitment Canadian Living and Coup de pouce bring to providing the latest parenting information for their readers.

Get Set For Life and Sponsor Activities - Unilever Canada, makers of Lipton and Sunlight products, believes in supporting and helping parents. The Lipton and Sunlight brands help to reach parents by including Get Set For Life parenting messages on their packaging and in their marketing activities.

Get Set For Life Welcome to Parenting Box

Invest in Kids and Unilever Canada Foundation have partnered to produce 60,000 Welcome to Parenting Boxes—starter kits of practical resources to help parents support their child’s development in the first 18 months. In 2003, 10,000 Boxes were produced and distributed to overwhelming praise and demand from parents and professionals alike. In 2005, 50,000 Boxes will reach parents of newborns across the country with 25,000 going to those most in need, at no cost to parents, through agencies providing family support programs. Learn more.

The other 25,000 boxes can be purchased through the Invest in Kids website. Buy now. Invest in Kids will also work with companies, retailers and others who wish to help us expand our reach to parents by purchasing quantities for mass distribution. Learn more about distribution opportunities.

Invest in Kids thanks Scholastic Canada Ltd. for their generous contribution of children’s books.

Parent Help Line

Parent Help Line is a service of Kids Help Phone in collaboration with Invest in Kids. This national, toll free, bilingual, confidential and anonymous telephone and website service gives Canadians a place to turn for help with their parenting concerns and questions. Through a staff of professional counsellors and a library of over 300 recorded messages developed by the parenting and child development experts at Invest in Kids, Parent Help Line provides information, counselling, referrals and support 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling 1-888-603-9100 or visiting www.parenthelpline.ca.

"Years Before Five" Resource Kit

This 24-page kit is our core parent education resource. It is filled with information and recommendations from our experts about how we can all give children the best start in life. To date, 400,000 kits have been distributed to individuals and organizations across Canada, including 250,000 kits to parents of newborns through Ontario's "Healthy Babies, Healthy Children" program.

Invest in Kids has also designed a complete presentation package for professionals working with parents to accompany the "Years Before Five" Resource Kit. Our Facilitator's Guide to the Resource Kit includes coloured overheads and presentation speaking notes that outline the importance of the early years, a summary of infant, toddler and preschooler characteristics, details on how to encourage development at different ages and stages and ten "Years Before Five" Resource Kits.

Click here to order one free copy of our Resource Kit, or purchase a quantity of these kits or the Facilitator's Guide.

Growing Together

Growing Together is an innovative community-based model of prevention and early intervention programs designed to enhance social, emotional and intellectual development of young children living in high risk areas.

Invest in Kids supports active projects in two locations in Nova Scotia: Dartmouth North (near the province's capital, Halifax) and Victoria County in Cape Breton. These locations provide services and supports to families with young children. Find out more.