At the 1990 United Nations World Summit for Children, the leaders of 71 countries made a commitment to invest in the well-being of vulnerable children. The Government of Canada responded with the Child Development Initiative (CDI). CAPC is the largest programme of this initiative.
CAPC provides long term funding to community coalitions to deliver programs that address the health and development of children (0-6 years) who are living in conditions of risk. It recognizes that communities have the ability to identify and respond to the needs of children and places a strong emphasis on partnerships and community capacity building.
CAPC projects provide parents with the support and information they need to raise their children.
Programs include established models (e.g. family resources centres, parenting classes, parent/child groups, home visiting) and innovative programs (e.g. street level programs for substance abusing mothers.)
CAPC targets children living in low income families; children living in teenage-parent families; children experiencing developmental delays, social, emotional or behavioral problems; and abused and neglected children.
Special consideration is given to Métis, Inuit and off-reserve First Nations children, and the children of recent immigrants and refugees, children in lone-parent families and children who live in remote and isolated communities.
The total budget for CAPC for 2001-2002 is $ 59.5 million annually; $ 52.9 million goes directly to communities. Each province/territory receives a base allocation of $ 500,000 per year to allow for at least one major project of significant intervention.The remaining funding is allocated on the basis of the number of children aged 0-6 in each province / territory.
There are 464 CAPC projects across Canada.
The common threads for all the CAPC projects are the Guiding Principles:
The Guiding Principles are frequently cited by projects as the key to success and some of the theoretical assumptions behind them are so widely shared that they seem self-evident to projects.
CAPC is governed by administrative Protocols, signed at the Ministerial level, that identify funding priorities and set out the terms and conditions for managing projects in each province / territory.
CAPC is jointly managed by the federal government and provincial /territorial governments through provincially based Joint Management Committees (JMC). with representatives from provincial / territorial ministries and representatives as appropriate from community organizations. The JMC's determine how best to address provincial / territorial priorities and allocate CAPC funds. As a result, there are significant differences between the provinces and territories with respect to project size, sponsorship and geographic distribution of projects.
It helped us become more of a community. People look out more for each other. We can be there for others.--CAPC Parent
CAPC projects and programs are evaluated at the national, regional and local levels to provide information on the development of programs and on their impact on the children and families participating in CAPC programs.
"The results clearly demonstrate that CAPC projects contribute to the well-being of parents, children and families by directly addressing at least four major determinants of health including, healthy child development; personal health practices and social skills; social support networks; and social environments."—The Final Report of the Atlantic CAPC Evaluation
The following stories have been written to celebrate and promote the innovative, community-based accomplishments of CAPC projects. The views expressed in these stories are those of the authors and individuals working in CAPC projects, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Health Canada. All articles have been reviewed and approved by the projects profiled. The stories have been written by Alison Larabie, journalism student from Carleton University