Government of Canada supports young children and families in official language minority communities across Canada

The Healthy Early Years (HEY) program aims to improve the health and development of children and their families, particularly those living in situations of increased vulnerability. 

OTTAWA, ON, March 21, 2024 /CNW/ - Improving the health and wellbeing of children and families in official language minority communities (OLMCs) across Canada is a priority for the Government of Canada. Health and development programs that are appropriate to the culture and language of communities helps to support healthier children, families and communities for generations.

Today, the Honourable Mark Holland, Minister of Health, announced $9,450,000 over five years, for two organizations through the Public Health Agency of Canada's (PHAC) Healthy Early Years program. This investment will help improve access to community-based early childhood health promotion programming in OLMCs, including assisting families facing health equity barriers. It will also expand knowledge and resources as well as strengthen capacity to help improve the health and development of children (birth to 6 years of age). 

• The Société Santé en français (SSF) will receive $7,560,000 to support francophones living in OLMCs outside of the province of Quebec.
  
  
• The Community Health and Social Services Network (CHSSN) will receive $1,890,000 to support anglophones living in OLMCs in the province of Quebec.

Both SSF and CHSSN will re-distribute funds to community-based organizations supporting the implementation and delivery of locally-tailored initiatives, including those that provide prenatal and postnatal activities, parenting skills programs and child-parent relationship programs. Throughout the next five years, SSF and CHSSN will offer capacity-building support, training and networking opportunities, host knowledge exchange and transfer events and disseminate resources to their community partners.

"The Société Santé en français and the Community Health and Social Services Network understand the needs of their communities and have demonstrated the significant impact of their work and networks over the years. The renewal of their projects for the next five years will continue to improve the health and well-being of people living in official language minority communities across Canada, including low-income, socially isolated, single-parent families or newcomer families with young children."

The Honourable Mark Holland
Minister of Health

"By supporting initiatives that respect culture and language, we foster environments where every child can thrive from the start. Investing in the Healthy Early Years program empowers organizations like Société Santé en français and the Community Health and Social Services Network to bridge gaps in community services, and ensure that every family, regardless of their background or circumstances, has the support they need to flourish."

The Honourable Randy Boissonnault
Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages

"Since 2019, the Société Santé en français' "Healthy Early Years" project has been working to ensure that every child aged 0 to 6 from minority Francophone and Acadian communities can get off to a good start in life in terms of physical, mental, emotional and social health. Thanks to the renewal of financial support from the Public Health Agency of Canada for the next five years, some twenty partners involved in French-language early childhood across Canada will continue to deploy actions that improve the well-being of parents, from the prenatal period onwards, as well as children aged 0 to 6 and their families, and engage communities in taking charge of their health, well-being and overall health services."

Antoine Désilets
Executive Director, Société Santé en français

"Challenges in accessing health and social services for English-speaking families in Quebec are well documented. Moreover, the role that community organizations can play to mitigate the barriers to access have been well demonstrated. For these reasons, our network is thrilled to receive the support of the Public Health Agency of Canada for our network organizations to strengthen their capacity to help children 0-6 years of age and parents facing conditions of risk."

Jennifer Johnson
Executive Director, Community Health and Social services Network

• The Healthy Early Years (HEY) program stems from the Government of Canada's Action Plan for Official Languages 2018-2023: Investing in Our Future as well as Budget 2018, which provided $10 million over five years for this priority program.
• The new Action Plan for Official Languages 2023?2028: Protection-Promotion-Collaboration, released in April 2023, provides $10.9 million over five years to PHAC and continues to include the HEY program as a key mechanism to enhance early childhood health promotion programming. 
• From 2019 to 2024, funding from the HEY program to the SSF and the CHSSN supported 59 organizations across Canada. In 2023, more than16,000 people participated in programs through these organizations.
• With this further five-year investment to the SSF and CHSSN, PHAC aims to effectively and efficiently distribute funds amongst OLMC through organizations who have established community networks and who have demonstrated experience in administering health promotion programs to the targeted communities. 
• Official Language Minority Communities (OLMC) are French-speaking communities outside Quebec and English-speaking communities within Quebec. Official Language Minority Community organizations/institutions can include post-secondary institutions, school boards, non-profit organizations, health authorities, municipalities, private industry, etc. that operate in the minority official language of their province or territory. 

• Healthy Early Years Program
• Action Plan for Official Languages
• Société Santé en français
• Community Health and Social Services Network

SOURCE Public Health Agency of Canada