Inclusion and Underserved Communities

As we work to strengthen support systems for caregivers and care providers, we endeavour to identify and support equity-deserving groups that are marginalized or constrained by existing structures and practices.


We seek to build and nurture new networks and better understand the needs of caregivers and care providers from coast to coast to coast.


With our roots in disability community, we embrace the principle of “nothing about us without us.” We value and invest in lived experience and co-design approaches.

For Caregivers

National Indigenous Caregiving Collective

To better support Indigenous caregivers across the country, we are investing in the creation of a national Indigenous Caregiving Collective (ICC), led by Dr. Grant Bruno, a caregiver and registered member of Nipisihkopahk (Samson Cree Nation), and an assistant professor in pediatrics at the University of Alberta. The ICC will support Indigenous caregivers locally and nationally through research, support services, and advocacy.

The goals of the three-year initiative include:

1. Bringing together the institutional support and research-to-practice learnings of the University of Alberta’s Women and Children Health Research Institute and the clinical services and community engagement of the Nipisihkopahk Pediatric Clinic and Maskwacîs Parents Place within the four nations of Maskwacîs.
2. Building an Indigenous network of researchers and supports for Indigenous caregivers and a pan-Canadian network of Indigenous Elders, organizations, health practitioners, and researchers to share knowledge, scale practices, identify research priorities, and advocate for better caregiving policy.

The ICC is the first Indigenous-focused caregiving initiative of its kind in Canada. Through the initiative, the collective will identify barriers to culturally appropriate support for care recipients and their caregivers. The ICC will also establish a national advisory circle to guide the work ahead.

Developing Accessible Resources
for Young Caregivers

Young caregivers need accessible, trustworthy information that reflects their experiences. We are proud to support Our Kids Health (OKH) to develop new targeted resources designed specifically for young caregivers to address the existing resource gap for this demographic.

With our support, OKH will:

• Engage young caregivers and their parents to identify six priority areas of learning.
• Work with health professionals to develop videos and infographics that respond to those priorities and make them available in 10 languages.

OKH is a digital health education platform created by a team at Unity Health Toronto. The platform shares culturally relevant health and parenting information with 10 priority cultural and linguistic communities, including Punjabi, Tamil, Filipino, Cantonese, Mandarin, Ukrainian, Hispanic, Arabic, Black Francophone and Black African and Caribbean communities.