December 16, 2003 - On November 20, the United Way of Regina announced CUETS' donation of $10,000 to Baby FAST - a family and early childhood support program being developed by an innovative group of project partners. This donation will enable the program partners to build the program's capacity through a "train the trainer" process that will enhance our community's capacity in the critical area of early childhood development for years to come.

The announcement of CUETS support was made at the launch of a new collaborative effort between the United Way of Regina and the South Saskatchewan Community Foundation (SSCF) called the Tomorrow Fund. The Tomorrow Fund is designed to allow individuals and corporations to make extraordinary, long-term contributions to key areas of impact through gifts of cash, securities, annuities, charitable remainder trusts, or through your estate planning in the form of a charitable bequest.

CUETS CEO Stan Kuss was eager to see the program move forward. "We believe in the Tomorrow Fund vision for community development. By supporting Baby FAST, CUETS can invest in the next generation."

United Way CEO Vic Huard welcomed CUETS' participation in the new program and explained the importance of proactive programs like Baby FAST. "The charitable agencies in our communities are like lifeboats on a river, rescuing those who have fallen in. They do their best at getting people out of the river, reviving them, and getting them back to shore. The people in the lifeboats are doing great work, but they're tired and there are more and more people to help. What our community needs to do is take a walk up the bank and find out why people are falling in the river in the first place. Then we need to build fences to help keep them on the shore where they can make their own contributions to our community's future."

Baby FAST is one of those fences. "FAST" stands for "Families and Schools Together" and is delivered by the Catholic Family Services, Family Service Regina, Regina Public School Board, Regina Catholic School Board, and the Regina Police Service. There are existing versions of the program for school-age children. These versions of FAST attempt to improve the lives of children by working with their school and home situations at the same time. Baby FAST will deliver the same innovative programming to pre-school children aged 0-5 and their parents. Huard says, "This is an exciting proactive step! By helping children right from birth, we believe we can increase their chances for success in school and beyond."