Congratulations to all of our undergraduate and graduate students who convocated in Fall 2024! We are celebrating Jane Cervi, who was a student in Dr. Sejal Patel’s graduate Internship in Early Childhood Studies course, and an alumna of the Masters in Early Childhood Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University.
We would also like to acknowledge Martha Friendly, who has been a leading member in the child care movement since the 1960s, recently becoming an appointee to the Order of Canada and receiving a Key to the City of Toronto. Martha is the founder and executive director of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit in Toronto where Jane Cervi was a graduate student intern in Winter 2024.
Martha has led the child care movement in Canada advocating for an equitable, universal, high-quality child care sector. A social science researcher by education, she started working on early childhood education and child care research in the late 1960s and became a part of grassroots child care activism in the 1970s. Martha founded the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU) at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Urban and Community Studies in the early 1980s, which has a mandate to work towards a universal child care system. The CRRU is now an independent non-profit organization continuing to do this work. Martha is the author of numerous publications and the recipient of many awards, including an honourary doctorate from Trent University.
On behalf of Jane Cervi and the School of Early Childhood Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University, we wish to personally congratulate Martha on her tremendous accomplishments.
During Jane Cervi’s time at the CRRU, Martha taught her many valuable lessons about leading the way and advocating for children and families, and the role of research and policy in the early learning and child care sector.
Martha and the CRRU team inspired Jane Cervi to continue with this important work and to be an advocate for a universal child care sector that we can all be proud of. “Having spent significant time listening, reading and learning throughout my time as an intern with the CRRU team I soon began to realize there was a major piece of the early learning and child care puzzle missing. This piece is to look deeper at prioritizing expansion for children and their families through the lens of a professional who understands and cares deeply for the early learning and child care sector.”-Jane Cervi
Click here to read more about the need for child care expansion in Ontario’s Niagara Region.
