Keeping Score on Kids in Ontario

Child advocacy groups call for collaborative centre to improve child and youth well-being in Ontario

The Offord Centre for Child Studies and Voices for Children are calling on the provincial government to establish a Collaborative Centre of Knowledge Innovation for Child and Youth Well-Being in Ontario.

The two groups, who teamed up two years ago to investigate the state of knowledge around Ontario's children and youth, found that because there is no system in place to monitor and share information, we know very little about whether the health and well-being of the province’s 4,000,000 young people is getting better or worse.

They want the Ontario government to create an arm's-length, multipartner agency to lead a province-wide effort linking communities and the information they are already generating so that we will have a comprehensive picture of how our kids are doing.

"We know that Ontario's future is being decided today.  The decisions and investments we make now for our children are creating the Ontario we will have 20 years from now.  Regrettably, there is no system in place right now to guide that decision-making," warns Sam Gardner, research associate at the Offord Centre.  He and Cathy Vine, executive director of Voices for Children, led the two-year investigation that prompted the call for a collaborative centre.

Funded by the province but operating at arm's length from the government, the proposed Collaborative Centre of Knowledge Innovation for Child and Youth Well-Being in Ontario would unite multiple stakeholders and communities across the province to gather and share research information in a timely fashion and in ways that everyone can understand and act on.

The pay-off, says Gardner, will be better information about what helps and hinders child and youth well-being and wiser investments by those responsible for developing policies, programs and services for children and youth.