Get Set for Life Welcome to Parenting Box Provides Parenting Support to Parents of Newborns in Communities Across Canada

With great support from Unilever Canada Foundation, Invest in Kids has produced the Get Set for Life Welcome to Parenting Box. This important resource contains a range of materials for parents of newborns who might not otherwise have easy or affordable access to information or resources to support them in their role as parents. In communities across Canada, the Boxes have been distributed to 10,000 new mothers who use the services of participating resource centres, organizations and programs that provide support to families with young children.

"Unilever Canada Foundation is committed to providing Canada's youngest children with the best possible start in life," says Kevin Boyce, President and CEO, Unilever Canada. "We are very proud to be involved with Invest in Kids in developing a creative solution to one of the most important challenges facing new parents."

The Box contains a wealth of practical, easy-to-understand materials designed to help improve the knowledge, skills and confidence of parents of newborns. They will be delivered by professional and para-professional home visitors who will work with parents to ensure they understand how the materials in the Box can be used to strengthen their parenting skills.

"The materials in the Box put parenting information right in the hands of parents who need it most, at no cost to them," says Dr. Chaya Kulkarni, Vice President, Invest in Kids. "They are based on Comfort, Play & Teach: A Positive Approach to Parenting™ which is a simple approach we developed to build on the every day activities that are part of a parent's daily routine."

Materials in the box include:

• Welcome to Parenting: Comfort, Play and Teach: A Positive Approach to Parenting™ - The Amazing World of Your Baby: Birth to 18 months
  This guidebook explains what parents can expect at different stages of their infant's development in the first 18 months, and how Comfort, Play & Teach can be used to encourage their child's healthy development.
• A Galaxy Whoozit®
  This award-winning developmental toy, developed by Manhattan Toys, comes with an Invest in Kids' guide. The guide uses Comfort, Play & Teach to show parents how to use the Whoozit to encourage their infant's social, emotional and intellectual development.
• Listings of national and local community resources.
• Parenting with the Zap Family
  This video and guidebook package features the animated Zap Family in typical parent-child situations that give insights into how parents can cope in their own lives.
• A Get Set for Life on CBC infant bib.
• Product samples and coupons.

Invest in Kids will assess this program over the coming months with an eye to developing more Get Set for Life Welcome to Parenting Boxes that will continue to reach more and more new parents in need.

Buy the Get Set for Life Welcome to Parenting Box from our web store.

Click here for Get Set for Life.

For more information about Unilever Canada, visit www.unilever.ca.

For more information on the Welcome to Parenting Box, please contact Laura Magnoli at [email protected].