What we do

Our core mission is to enable excellence in community based social services.

Enabling excellence

We provide opportunities for support, information exchange, service consultation and collaboration between member agencies in the field of community and social services.

Some illustrations of the supports and services we provide member agencies include:

  • Access to three provincial general meetings each year that deliver information on key issues, enhance knowledge about promising and effective practices, provide access to government leaders, inform and influence public policies and create opportunities for participants to learn from each other and network with colleagues.
  • Access to meetings in each of the five regions to that enable information exchange and ensure that regional input is provided on provincial issues.
  • Access to affordable, high quality education and training for staff, leadership and board members of member agencies through workshops held in advance of general meetings, regional workshops, jointly delivered training with post-secondary partners and specialized training opportunities.
  • Assistance and mentoring to agencies undertaking accreditation for the first time.
  • Opportunities to participate in promising practices research, and receive support for data collection, analysis and evaluation.
  • Access to timely information on current media reports, government announcements, legislation and legislative debates, funding opportunities, learning events, and new research and reports.
  • Opportunities to request research summaries on specific areas of practice or service.
  • Engagement through a comprehensive website.
  • Access to administrative and program expertise.
  • Eligibility for high quality, lower cost employee benefit, liability, and general insurance packages.
  • Recognition through an annual Award for Excellence in child and family service

Public policy action

We’re a strong representative voice at the provincial government level. We bring forward issues and concerns, as well as possible solutions, on behalf of our members, our service recipients and the broader community services sector. We engage in collaborative action wherever possible to overcome challenges and achieve improvements in practice, programs and public policy.

Some examples of our public policy action include:

  • Undertaking a joint research project with the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) to enhance understanding about the operational sustainability challenges faced by community serving agencies and to recommend action
  • Drafting a comprehensive report for the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government on operational sustainability challenges and solutions for the community services sector, augmented by a Provincial and four regional verbal presentations that were coordinated to reinforce key messages and the need for action.
  • Establishing a joint Recording and Reporting Working Group with MCFD to reduce, rationalize and streamline recording and reporting requirements for agencies and ensure that information is used to continually improve service quality.
  • Providing input into policy, program and practice reviews and reports such as the Auditor General’s review of Aboriginal child welfare services, the Representative for Children and Youth’s review of the Hughes Report implementation, MCFD’s Strong, Safe and Supported Action Plan and reviews of child and youth mental health services and youth transition services.
  • Providing input into legislative and regulatory amendments and opportunities such as the regulations for the Social Workers Act and the prospects for social services professions legislation to enhance professional accountability and self governance.
  • Providing leadership at and contributing to provincial and regional practice forums such as the Strong, Safe and Supported Congress hosted by MCFD.
  • Coordinating sector-wide initiatives and action such as the Recruitment and Retention project.
  • Encouraging stronger links between research and practice through initiatives such as the Applied Promising Practices which supports agencies to identify and evaluate promising practices, link to research and share innovations that improve services.
  • Establishing a Federation – Regional Executive Directors working group to undertake collaborative action on five critical areas of concern to both the Federation members and MCFD leaders, including operational sustainability, procurement and contracting, recruitment and retention, residential services and youth transitions.
  • Establishment of board and member committees and working groups to address specific areas of interest such as quality assurance, education and training, recruitment and retention and youth services.