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Working with children leads Mohawk grad to Premier's AwardPursuing your passion can be rewardingWhen Marnie Flaherty won the Ontario Premier's Award for Community Services earlier this year, it underscored the idea that when you pursue your passion, the rest will follow. SHARON ASCHAIEK |
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 [ 2007-04-25 ] |
Marnie Flaherty is chief executive director of the non-profit Today's Family -- Caring for Your Child. She helped evolve Today's Family from a half-million-dollar organization to one with an $8.5-million annual budget.
As chief executive director of the non-profit Today's Family -- Caring for Your Child, Flaherty oversees the administration of early learning and childcare programs that serve thousands of children and families in Hamilton and Halton region.
"I love what I do; it's my passion," says Flaherty, 46, who received her award at a gala dinner this past February. "It was such an honour to receive this award, I was really taken aback."
Flaherty knew when she was a child herself that she wanted to work with children in some way; when, in 1980, she enrolled in Mohawk College's Early Childhood Education program, she gained the skills and know-how to refine her professional goals and build her career.
The college's two-year program provided Flaherty with a basic understanding of the nature of effective preschool programs and their value in fostering children's development. She learned about methods to support young children and their families; the stages of child development and behaviour; child health, safety and nutrition standards, and more.
"The curriculum was very practical and current," Flaherty recalls. "It helped you understand certain stages in kids' lives, what they go through and why they go through it."
Through four field placements at various childcare centres, she had opportunities to observe, practise and evaluate the ECE theories she had learned in the classroom.
Her very first placement, at McMaster Children's Centre, a non-profit municipal-run childcare centre on McMaster University campus, struck a cord with Flaherty.
"I was thrilled at being in such a high-quality program," she says. "The executive director of that program really influenced me to continue working in the preschool area. She had such vision and really neat ideas on how ECE services should be evolving."
Upon graduating in 1982, Flaherty wrestled with her career plans, and worked for a while as a cook, pharmacy apprentice and sales rep for a firm that helped companies start government-funded daycares.
By 1988, she felt something was missing, and realized her true calling lay in working directly with children. She returned to Mohawk in search of some guidance from a former instructor who'd made a lasting impact on her during her training. Her teacher told her about Today's Family, then a small organization of which she was president, and invited her aboard.
Flaherty joined Today's Family as a frontline ECE worker, and very quickly began helping to grow the organization into the multi-service agency it is today. She worked to introduce childcare centres as one of its services, as well as a homemaking service (no longer offered) that offered temporary in-home parenting support to families in crisis.
Flaherty helped evolve Today's Family from a half-million-dollar organization to one with an $8.5-million annual budget that today, under her leadership, offers 4,000 children and families 10 different ECE services, including licensed public and home-based daycare centres, before/after school care, day camps, Ontario Early Years centres, a nanny referral service and a toy lending service. Well used and appreciated by local families, the agency was also recently recognized as a top-three finalist for the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce's 2006 Outstanding Business Achievement award in the non-profit category.
"I love the idea that our organization is one that can help families and really advocate for them," she says. "I love the people I work with -- we've got a team of really good people who are committed to doing this work."
While working with children has been a lifelong interest, she says, the specialized, hands-on training she received at Mohawk College provided the direction she needed to build a meaningful career.
"My college education was the foundation of my career, the starting point -- it allowed me to work in programs like this," she says. "I love my job and feel really honoured to be doing the work I do."
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