A significant investment of $2.1 billion over four years to improve access to mental health care and addiction services in yesterday’s budget is good news for many families involved with child welfare in Ontario. Nearly half of families receive services from children’s aid because of adult mental […]
Read more →A Conversation with OACAS CEO, Mary Ballantyne, and Director of Indigenous Services, Karen Hill The federal minister of Indigenous Services, Jane Philpott, called for an emergency summit to be held last month to address the current situation in Indigenous child welfare, which she has likened the horrors […]
Read more →The Toronto region remains the child poverty capital of the country, a new report released this month finds. Unequal City, developed by Toronto CAS and key community partners—Social Planning Toronto, Colour of Poverty Network, Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, and Campaign 2000 to End Child Poverty—illuminates […]
Read more →What insights can an Indigenous perspective contribute to our annual Child Abuse Prevention Month campaign? The word child abuse implies that there is a wicked mother step-mother behind it. I wish it were that simple. What is really behind child abuse is a number of factors that […]
Read more →This article was originally published in Bancroft This Week. Reprinted with permission. As we make our way through October, we recognize the 25th annual Child Abuse Prevention Month. We recognize that in a perfect world, every child would have a safe, loving home and family, who could […]
Read more →Rocco Gizzarelli, Executive Director of the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Hamilton, writes on why a multi-agency approach is vital to addressing youth homelessness In an average year, as many as 50,000 young people in Canada find themselves without stable housing. In Hamilton, there were at least […]
Read more →On June 1, 2017, Bill 89: Supporting Children, Youth and Families Act, 2016, introduced by the Minister of Children and Youth Services (MCYS) in December 2016, received royal assent in the Ontario Legislature. Bill 89 introduces historic amendments to the Child and Family Services Act and is […]
Read more →The 2016 Toronto Vital Signs Report, released last week by the Toronto Foundation, paints a grim picture of child and family poverty in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). While Toronto scores high on many quality of life measures, it remains the “child poverty capital of Canada.” One […]
Read more →The recently released UNICEF Report Card 13: Fairness for Children, which measures the depths of inequality in children’s well-being across the richest countries, shows that Canada has fallen to 26th place, from 17th place in 2013, just ahead of Poland, France, and Belgium. The report measures bottom-end […]
Read more →OACAS’ Kike Ojo provides an update on where the One Vision One Voice project is at. During the fall and winter, the One Vision One Voice project held 15 community consultations across the province. What was the purpose of these consultations? The purpose of gathering community feedback […]
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