Background & Goals

There is strength in numbers.  Eleven national organizations have come together under the umbrella of the Canadian Child & Youth Health Coalition (CCYHC) with a common vision to advance the cause of child and youth health and health care in Canada.

• The Canadian Association of Paediatric Health Centres (CAPHC);
• The Canadian Child Health Clinician Scientist Program (CCHCSP);
• The Canadian Family Advisory Network (CFAN);
• The Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS)
• The Council of Canadian Child Health Research (CCCHR);
• The Maternal, Infant, Child, & Youth Research Network (MICYRN);
• The National Infant, Child, & Youth Mental Health Consortium (The Consortium);
• The Paediatric Chairs of Canada (PCC);
• The Pediatric Surgical Chiefs of Canada (PSCC);
• The Safe Kids Canada (SKC); and,
• The Sandbox Project

Established in 2004, the Coalition links 17 participating academic health centres across the country, and unites a broad range of experts and stakeholders across the continuum of child and youth health including all academic child health research institutes; a national clinical research infrastructure network; a national clinician scientist training program; all departments of paediatrics; all paediatric surgical departments; the national association of paediatricians; all children’s hospitals; the majority of child and youth rehabilitation centres; many community and regional hospitals that provide healthcare services to infants, children, and youth; over 30 child and youth focused mental health organizations; a leading national child and youth injury prevention organization; and 15 family advisory groups. 

The CCYHC is collaborative and consensus-driven.   While each of the Coalition members holds distinct mandates, they share many common goals and objectives. The collective mandate of CCYHC is to advocate on national child and youth health, healthcare and policy issues and decisions that will benefit from the collective expertise and influence of the Coalition members.  By working together as a national collaborative, CCYHC has an unparalleled capacity to encourage the development and evaluation of models of quality care, promote excellence and innovation in the education and training of child and youth health professionals, stimulate and promote the development of new knowledge, and promote the uptake and implementation of evidence-based practice and policy that can lead to improvement in child and youth health outcomes.

The Coalition has emerged as a leader in representing the interests of the entire child and youth health care community and in identifying its priorities. Our achievements so far – in research, resource strategy and advocacy ­– demonstrate what can be done when highly accomplished and determined individuals work together. We aim to capitalize on this momentum as the CCYHC expands its membership and scope of activity in the years ahead.

CCYHC is supported by a generous operating grant from the SickKids Foundation National Grants Program and by smaller contributions from each of its member organizations. The Coalition is governed by a Steering Committee comprised of representatives from each of the eleven members and is coordinated by a small Secretariat located in Ottawa.