The idea for the ICY Hub of Infant, Child, and Youth Development began in Calgary, Alberta.
During the years of COVID-19, while teaching online a group of child development students in psychology began talking about the need for better community infrastructure in the world of infant, child, and youth development. The professor of the course, Dr. Kathleen Hughes, was inspired.

It took several years to put into motion, through writing grants to conduct environmental scans of community infrastructure, of co-operative education programs in child development, and to look into best practices of building community bridges.

Dr. Kathleen Hughes, the Director of the ICY Hub, has worked in non-profit organizations (children’s libraries, early learning centres), in government agencies, and in academia. She is currently an Associate Professor (Teaching) at the University of Calgary in the Department of Psychology. She studies social emotional assets in development and has recently collaborated on an open-access textbook “Lifespan Development” by OpenStax which can be accessed here: https://openstax.org/details/books/lifespan-development