Overview Since their foundation in 2000, the Centres of Excellence for Children's Well-Being have worked to better the lives of children and youth in Canada and around the world. Together, the four Centres of Excellence (Child Welfare, Early Childhood Development, Special Needs and Youth Engagement) engage a wide range of stakeholders in a dialogue on best practices to improve the well-being of Canada's youngest citizens. The Centres foster collaboration on children's issues among policy makers, academics, child service practitioners, non-profit organizations, community-based organizations and other stakeholders, including end-users. Their work results in better policy and practice related to children's issues across Canada. Drawing on their networks across the country, the Centres offer a breadth of views and a depth of knowledge and expertise. This ensures information provided is accessible, credible and represents best practice. The Centres also provide the capacity to assist others in focussed dialogue and application of evidence-based knowledge to improve the lives of Canadian children and youth. Scope of Work The Centres, a vital force in making A Canada Fit for Children a reality, contribute to the national and international dialogue on children's issues in a number of key ways, including: • collecting, creating, analysing and synthesizing knowledge related to children's health; • providing evidence-based advice on related policy matters to provincial, territorial and federal governments; and, • serving as trusted resources for a broad network of local, national and international child • service professionals, educators, academics, community leaders, etc. AchievementsAll Centres have made significant progress in advancing child and youth health issues both domestically and abroad. The following is a brief summary of some of their individual accomplishments. The Centre of Excellence for Children and Adolescents with Special Needs • The Centre worked with the Government of Nunavut on an initiative that led to the installation of sound amplification systems in all new schools in Northern Ontario specifically for First Nations children to support learning of children suffering from hearing loss due to chronic middle ear disease, a condition prevalent in northern Canada. • The Centre also worked on a key study pertaining to the age at which obesity begins in Newfoundland and Labrador. • Additionally, the centre created an on-line directory comprised of information and services for parents of special needs children in the Atlantic region. Due to the success of this program, other regions have requested support to set up comparable services. Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development • The Centre has developed an on-line encyclopedia synthesizing the best available information on early childhood development in areas such as autism, nutrition, obesity and parenting skills. The encyclopedia has gained international recognition and is currently being translated into Spanish to respond to information requests from around the world. • The Centre has been i nstrumental in assisting the World Health Organization (WHO) establish an international knowledge hub on early childhood development. Centre of Excellence for Child Welfare• The Centre has been assisting the Governments of Alberta, Ontario and Quebec in revamping their child welfare systems, and is advising Ontario, and soon British Columbia on the reform of child welfare protection legislation. • The Centre also extended the Canadian Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (a key national study on child welfare) to a number of Aboriginal communities to address significant gaps in knowledge. • Furthermore, the Centre has been working closely with Argentina on foster care and adoption, and with the United Nations issues pertaining to Indigenous children. Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement • The Centre has been providing advice to inform Health Canada's Tobacco Control and Drug Strategies as well as informing the Canadian Senate on the development of youth engagement strategies. • The Centre has also been actively working with the City of Toronto to develop a training program for police to address gun and gang violence, using a youth engagement approach to help police better respond to situations.
Governance The Centres of Excellence program consists of a small Secretariat housed in the Public Health Agency of Canada that manages and coordinates the Program for the federal government. A National Expert Advisory Committee (NEAC) is also in place to provide independent advice to the Minister of Health on fostering innovation and collaboration between the Centres, while supporting the Agency in its efforts to ensure that their work is consistent with the Program's mandate, vision and expectations for excellence. It is composed of 13 experts in children's issues from across Canada. The NEAC is co-chaired by a PHAC representative and a non-government Committee member elected by the NEAC. Program EvaluationConsulting and Audit Canada conducted two evaluations of the Program (2003/2005). The 2003 evaluation concluded that the Program cost-effectively increased knowledge and public understanding of key determinants of children's well-being through collaboration, relevance, accessibility and design. The report also noted that the national platform model was an overwhelming success. The 2005 evaluation found that the Program successfully and cost-effectively increased knowledge and public understanding of key determinants of children's well-being, assisted parents and caregivers with tools to encourage healthy development of children and youth, promoted collaboration among stakeholders, and contributed to policy development at the federal, provincial and territorial levels .
We have provided a PDF that contains an outline of each Centre's mandate. Click to download them. Here is tool that was developed with input from the Aboriginal Working Group that was comprised of members from each Centre. This is only available in English. This is an Inventory of products related to Early Learning and Care that was put together by the Centre of Excellence for Children’s Well-Being and is an example of the type of information we feel it is important to share on an "All Centre" website. |
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