Évaluation des impacts de l’initiative communautaire 1, 2, 3 Go!

Evaluation of the Impacts of the 1,2,3GO! Community Project on the Development and Well-Being of Young Children and Their Families Elisa Denis, Gerard Malcuit and Andree Pomerleau Universite du Quebec a Montreal, Quebec, Canada This study assesses the impacts of the 1,2,3GO! project on children and their families. The initiative was established in socially disadvantaged territories of Greater Montreal to promote the development and well-being of children from 0-3 years old. Two data collections done two years apart compare cohorts of families from five 1,2,3GO! territories (n = 543) to those of comparison territories (n = 526). Overall, there was no change in the data. The cognitive development of children in the 1,2,3GO! territories remains inferior to that of children in the comparison territories. The health and environment indicators of the children in 1,2,3GO! territories are are less positive. They have fewer educational toys, spend more time watching television, and their parents spend less time playing with them and reading to them. In light of these results, it seems that 1,2,3GO! has not yet yielded the desired results. The sociodemographic features of the families explains part of this finding. Those in the 1,2,3GO! territories have more risk factors (unstable income, low education level, single-parent families). Better use of resources for children, and interventions aimed directly at infants would improve the effects of such community programs.