Education and Leadership Development

We are investing in initiatives and programs to empower and equip caregivers and care providers with the essential skills and knowledge they need.

By nurturing leaders in the caregiving space, we hope to pave the way for improved quality of care and support for all those who give and receive care.

For Caregivers

Caregiver Grief Connexion

When a caregiving journey ends with the death of a loved one, the caregiver may enter a challenging period of grief and stress. Even though most of us will give care at some point in our lives, our health systems are not equipped to provide support to caregivers during this difficult post-care period. To address the gap in care for bereaved caregivers, CCCE is supporting Dr. Pam Orzeck and Zelda Freitas of the McGill School of Social Work in creating Caregiver Grief Connexion. This bereavement support virtual training centre will help health care professionals provide appropriate care and resources for caregivers who are in the period of bereavement.

Once completed, the virtual training centre will include several opportunities and materials for health care professionals, including:

• A guide for professionals to offer individual caregiver bereavement support.
• A model for running caregiver bereavement support groups.
• A model for caregiver bereavement counselling.
• A model for a telephone outreach support program.
• A bereavement tool kit for family members and personal support workers – translated into multiple languages (Tagalog, Mandarin, etc.).

Communities of practice will also be created to offer clinical supervision and peer support to professionals, including a training for group leaders to create these communities.

The team at McGill School of Social Work is collaborating with Patrick Durivage of the Centre for Research and Expertise in Social Gerontology and several agencies from across the country to develop and execute the virtual training center. Additional partners include Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux du Centre-Ouest-de-l’Ile-de-Montreal, Community Health and Social Services Network, Victoria Hospice, Pallium Canada,  Canadian Virtual Hospice.

Building an Atlantic Caregiving Network 

Caregiving organizations across Atlantic Canada are building new momentum together. The establishment of Caregivers New Brunswick in 2025 means that two of the region’s provinces now have dedicated provincial caregiver organizations. It is an important step forward and an opportunity to build stronger connections across provincial boundaries.  

Building on this progress, we are supporting Caregivers Nova Scotia to partner with Caregivers New Brunswick to engage organizations across the Atlantic provinces and explore the feasibility of establishing an Atlantic Caregiver Alliance. The goal of the Alliance will be to foster collaboration, share best practices, strengthen public and government advocacy, and advance more coordinated supports for caregivers across the region. 

Caregivers’ experiences are shaped by where they live, but many of the challenges they face are shared. Greater regional collaboration can help ensure that organizations learn from one another, use their collective voice and build on the progress already underway. 

Canadian Brain Health and Cognitive Impairment in Aging Research Knowledge Mobilization (KM) Hub

The Canadian Brain Health and Cognitive Impairment in Aging Research Knowledge Mobilization (KM) Hub is a collaborative research initiative in partnership with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Aging and the Azrieli Foundation to ramp up efforts to learn more about dementia and brain health, improve treatment and outcomes for persons living with dementia, and evaluate and address mental health consequences for caregivers and different models of care.

The BHCIA KM Hub will serve as a national, centralized research resource for researchers and knowledge users, including care providers, caregivers and people living with dementia.   

Objectives:

• Accelerate and facilitate equitable and inclusive dissemination of research findings to diverse audiences across Canada
• Foster impactful, equitable and accessible uptake of knowledge created through research
• Increase collaborations and create linkages between researchers and knowledge users in the brain health and cognitive impairment in aging field
• Contribute to the dissemination of the knowledge created by research in areas related to the National Dementia Strategy.

Past Initiatives

Canadian Leadership Institute for Developmental Services

With over 70% of leaders in the developmental services sector expected to retire in the next decade, CCCE invested in leadership development for emerging leaders to help fill the gaps. In partnership with the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities and Inclusion Canada, we supported two cohorts of the Canadian Leadership Institute for Developmental Services.

The institutes focused on issues and opportunities specific to Canadian disability service sector leaders, such as improving services in rural regions and supporting First Nations communities.
Almost 100 new leaders participated in the program, all of whom continue to benefit from ongoing learning through quarterly learning sessions, access to an online community of over 3,000 alumni and invitations to their annual conference with Canadian and American experts.