Past Initiatives

Families Canada is committed to increasing the knowledge and sharing of promising practices currently being used by community-based family-serving programs in relation to mental health promotion of infants, children, youth and parents. Our focus in this area has involved three phases:

• Management of a national survey with more than 400 respondents, about work being done in promoting family mental health and about gaps in relation to mental health promotion in programs and staff training;
• Development of 10+ case studies on community program sites located across Canada, showing exemplary practices in promoting family mental health;
• A final project report incorporating our findings.

Part of increasing family wellness is making sure families have the tools they need to thrive, such as literacy.

Families Canada takes a long-term, holistic view of literacy and learning as connected to other community issues. Our broad national base of member organizations gives us the unique opportunity to deliver on this commitment where it matters most.

Our Weaving Literacy project was a three-year, national, bilingual, training project bringing together literacy and family support groups from 22 communities across Canada to develop and implement a literacy plan for their communities, in collaboration with the Movement for Canadian Literacy , and with funding from the National Literacy Secretariat/Human Resources and Skills Development.