Annual Impact Report
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Annual Impact Report November 2016 — November 2017 Word from our Founder & “ We simply couldn’t Lead Director of the Board have done this without you! Your support has helped raise awareness Thank you for joining Children First Canada in supporting our bold and ambitious vision that together we can make Canada the best that Canada’s children place in the world for kids to grow up! are not alright, and “ helped build a national It’s hard to believe how much has been accomplished in the year following the public launch of our national campaign! This report movement to do better. highlights some of the incredible accomplishments following our launch in November 2016, through to the National Summit for the Canadian Children’s Charter in November 2017. We simply couldn’t have done this without you! Your support has helped raise awareness that Canada’s children are not alright, and helped build a national movement to do better. Together, we need to ensure the wellbeing of Canada’s children and the protection of their rights. Thank you for all you do to help give a strong, effective and independent voice for all of our children. Sara Austin Founder and Lead Director of the Board Children First Canada Launch The kids are not alright In November 2016, Children First Canada Our report, The Kids are Not Alright, painted a disturbing publicly launched a national movement to picture of what it’s like for kids to grow up in Canada, make Canada the best place in the world for and was a clarion call for action: kids to grow up. With the support of the Angus Reid Institute and several other partners,[1] we released The Kids are Not Alright – a landmark report One in five (1/5) Canadian children lives in poverty, and on the state of Canada’s children and held a one in four (1/4) indigenous kids live in poverty launch event at the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto. The statistics are chilling because they represent millions of kids from all walks of life More than one in three (1/3) people requiring food that are falling through the cracks. These are assistance are children not just statistics; they are individual children who need our support. Childhood can’t wait, and we need urgent action today to improve the lives of all of One in five (1/5) Canadian kids has seriously Canada’s kids. considered suicide in the past year Investing in kids today has immediate and long-term benefits for their wellbeing, and sets young people on a path for lifelong health and success. One in three (1/3) of children have experienced some form of child abuse [1]Our partners for the launch included: The Sandbox Project, UNICEF, Kids Help Phone, Sick Kids Hospital and Foundation, Holland Bloorview Children’s Hospital, CHEO – Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada, Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, YMCA Canada, University of Toronto’s Fraser One child dies every nine hours Mustard Institute, Policy Wise for Children and Families. from preventable injuries National Speaker Series We were honoured to launch a national speaker series based on the The Kids are Not Alright report, in partnership with the Economic Club of Canada. Our first event took place in Toronto in November 2016, moderated byLisa LaFlamme (Host of CTV’s National News) and featuring Kathleen Taylor (Chair of RBC Royal Bank, and Sick Kids Foundation), Hannah Alper (14-year-old activist and motivational speaker), Sara Austin (Founder of Children First Canada), and Sam Yacoub (Youth Ambassador for Children First Canada). In February 2017, we brought the event to the Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa. We were delighted to feature Ted Woodhead, Senior VP of Federal Government and Regulatory Affairs at TELUS, alongside the Prime Minister’s Youth Council Member Ashley Whiteman, the Hon. Landon Pearson O.C., and Sara Austin, to discuss the urgent need for action to improve the lives of all of Canada’s children. We were also joined by new partners that are key to advancing the health and wellbeing of kids, including the Canadian Paediatric Society, CAPHC, and the Canadian Teachers Federation. The Globe and Mail’s André Picard served as the moderator for the Ottawa event, with introductory remarks by Alex Munter, CEO of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and the Ottawa Children’s Treatment Centre. The Minister for Families, Children and Social Development, the Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos, offered his remarks via video, and we were pleased to include officials from the Minister’s office along with other government stakeholders. In April 2017, we took the speaker series to Calgary, where our event featured Alberta’s newly appointed Minister of Children’s Services, the Hon. Danielle Larivee, alongside Sara Austin, Bonnie Johnson (CEO of the Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre), and Toney Bedell (17-year-old youth leader). The event featured a lively discussion on Alberta’s ground-breaking Children First Act and efforts to strengthen provincial and federal public policies to improve the lives of children and youth. Campaign for a National Children’s Commissioner Children First Canada has been leading a national campaign urging the federal government to appoint a Commissioner for Children and Youth to help drive measurable change on critical issues, including children’s health and safety, and reducing child poverty in Canada. A children’s commissioner would provide a non-partisan voice to ensure the protection of children’s rights, and measure how far the government has come in their plans to improve the lives of children. Children First Canada continued to speak out and push for a children’s commissioner to be named through lobbying, news reports, opinion articles, and TV appearances. We will continue to call on the government to keep its promise to appoint a federal Commissioner for Children and Youth, and to leverage the important work being done by Children First Canada and our partners to develop a robust action-oriented framework to protect children’s rights. The kids are not alright, and it’s time for Canada to measure up! Let’s put children First! Canadian Children’s Charter & National Summit In 2017, Children First Canada embarked on an exciting project to create a Canadian Children’s Charter, in partnership with Wisdom2Action. We began by consulting children and youth across the country through a digital campaign, sponsored by RBC. The result revealed a stark reality for kids across our country – children and youth struggle with a wide range of issues such as poverty, bullying, mental health, protection from violence and discrimination. They also shared their thoughts on what it would take to move Canada up the dial to become a world-leading country for kids. On National Children’s Day, nearly 40 young people from coast to coast to coast gathered on Parliament Hill for the National Summit for the Canadian Children’s Charter. They were joined by adult allies from charities, hospitals, the private sector and government. We are grateful to our title sponsor, TD Bank Group, our platinum sponsors TELUS and KPMG, along with the many other generous donors who supported the National Summit. Together, they drafted the Canadian Children’s Charter, which calls on our government and all Canadians to rise to the collective challenge to invest in Canada’s children, and take urgent action to close the gaps. In 2018, we’ll be working to finalize the Charter and put it into action. The full Canadian Children’s Charter (Draft) can be found at www.childrenfirstcanada.com/canadian-childrens-charter Youth delegates visited the Prime Minister’s Office and met with Parliamentary Secretary Peter Schiefke LA CHARTE CANADIAN CANADIENNE CHILDREN’S DES ENFANTS CHARTER Voices of Canada’s Children & Youth “It pains me to think...that within Canada there are people who aren’t represented the way they should or aren’t given their rights they should. There’s...this idea they do possess those rights but they don’t.” “We don’t have many opportunities to share our opinions and actually have them impact policies.” Rewan,17-year-old youth delegate from Ottawa “I think a children’s charter is needed to provide a uniform framework for how children in our society should be treated and viewed. It is necessary to inform children of their rights and hold governments responsible for the abuses made to these rights.” Roman, 10-year-old youth delegate from Calgary “If children don’t know their rights, then they won’t know when their rights are violated.” Callum, 14-year-old youth delegate from Halifax, shown here with Toney,17-year-old youth Lyza, 15-year-old youth delegate from Antigonish delegate from Calgary Making headlines! Throughout the year, we held several major media campaigns to spread public awareness about the urgent needs of kids in Canada, and calling on all Canadians to take action. The launch of Children First Canada garnered massive media attention, including being a leading story on CTV National News with Lisa LaFlamme, syndicated radio interviews on CBC radio from coast to coast, and coverage in major national and local newspapers. A total of 165 articles were published or broadcast about the launch through 93 individual news outlets, reaching a total audience of more than 25 million readers. News of the launch also spread widely over social media and was trending on Twitter. In February 2017, we continued to make headlines with a media blitz focused on our campaign for a federal Children’s Commissioner. The campaign generated a total of 129 articles that were published or broadcast, reaching a total audience of 40.5 million readers.