Resources
ALIGN’s Well-Being Toolkit Community of Practice (CoP) is April 11, 2025. Join Us!
The CoP is an informal community of like-minded practitioners and evaluators in the child and family serving sector who are interested in growing their organization’s impact on child and youth well-being.
OCYA Calling for Change Report 2025: Consultation Opportunities for Young People and Practitioners
The Office of the Child and Youth Advocate’s 2024-2025 Calling for Change – Consolidated Investigative Review is underway. The focus of this year’s report is how systems recognize, support, and intervene when young people experience trauma, grief and loss and the consequences of unresolved trauma, grief, and loss, and pain-based behaviours that can happen as a result.
ALIGN Well-Being in Child and Family Services Initiative
The way we define and understand child and youth well-being matters.
Report - Indigenous Land-Based Research Gathering: Summary of Learnings from Talking Circles
A Way Home Canada and the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness’s Making the Shift Youth Homelessness Social Innovation Lab, in partnership with Waakebiness Institute for Indigenous Health, hosted a two-day, summative knowledge-sharing gathering held on the land and in ceremony.
An Introduction to Decolonizing Indigenous Research
A Way Home Canada, Canadian Observatory on Homelessness & Making the Shift Youth Homelessness Social Innovation Lab
A Guide to Serve & Return (Center on the Developing Child Harvard University)
The resources in this guide offer more on the science behind serve and return, practical ways to implement it, and strategies to support caregivers and children.
fACT Sheet: 2025 Alberta Provincial Budget (ESPC)
The 2025-26 Alberta budget, titled Meeting the Challenge, covers finances from April 1, 2025 until March 31, 2026 and seeks to continue to build the province and support Albertans during a challenging time period.
MHRC Report Unsupported Needs: Access to Mental Health and Substance Use Services...
Diving deeper into national trends of mental health service access, this report explores how severity of mental health symptoms or substance use behaviours relates to how Canadians are accessing support
Alberta Opens First Eating Disorders Recovery Centre in Calgary Supporting Youth & Adults
Operated by EHN Canada, the 12-bed EHN Sandstone Recovery Centre in Calgary increases access to specialized eating disorders treatment in the province providing up to 52 youth and young adults with treatment free of charge every year.
Calgary's Enough for All Well-Being Dashboard
The Enough for All Well-Being Dashboard brings to life vital data demonstrating Calgary's progress toward achieving its poverty-reduction goals. See yearly changes and trends in income, housing, education, employment, and more.
The Role of Mentoring for Foster Parents & Why It Matters
Mentoring children and youth offers significant value, both for the individuals involved and for society as a whole. Below are some of the key benefits of mentoring:
Online Training Decolonizing, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (Homeless Learning Hub)
Free, on-demand training designed to support anyone working in the homeless-serving sector who is committed to creating an inclusive and equitable environment for all.
Alberta.ca Open Data Emergency Shelters Daily Occupancy Updated Jan 2025
This collection of datasets provided by Seniors, Community and Social Services (SCSS)
Alberta Set to Change How Social Agencies Serving the Homeless are Funded in 2025
The Alberta Government announced upcoming changes to how services for Alberta's homeless population will be funded and will now provide funding directly to front-line agencies versus distributed through community-based organizations.
A Call for Meaningful Action in 2025 (Inclusion Canada)
The federal government released its Fall Economic Statement (FES) with new priorities and new spending—but no meaningful progress to lift people with disabilities out of poverty. Inclusion Canada is deeply disappointed that, despite Minister Chrystia Freeland’s resignation and clear signs of an economic pivot, this government continues to neglect the urgent needs of Canadians with disabilities.
This December, Be Part of a Provincial Story of Well-Being Impact! (Well-Being Eblast Nov 2024)
This December, we invite you to share your organization’s work of supporting Well-Being and create a Provincial Story of Impact with the ALIGN Well-Being Impact Portal and Dashboard. .
The State of Mental Health in Canada 2024 Report (CMHA)
On November 19, 2024 the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) released The State of Mental Health in Canada 2024, a first-of-its-kind deep dive into the landscape of mental health, addictions, and substance use health care in Canada using data from across the country.
A Generation at Risk: The State of Youth Mental Health in Canada October 2024
Mental Health Research Canada's (MHRC) report is the first comprehensive and collaborative national report of its kind to be released in at least five years.
Alberta.ca Ensuring Wraparound Services
Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange and Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services Jason Nixon issued the following update on continuing care and the health refocusing work originally announced in November 2023: “
MCHB: Centering Stories in an Ecological Framework (ALIGN's Well-Being Eblast Oct. 2024)
This month we feature Hannah Goa’s experience of piloting the toolkit at the Multicultural Health Broker Cooperative (MCHB) in Edmonton. Hannah has been supporting the Intercultural FRN work for the past 4 years and is responsible for reporting to funders. She became interested in joining the toolkit pilot group to inspire her work on their Evaluation Framework that uniquely reflects the values and principles of cultural brokering.
Establishing Community Pathways to Prevention Services In the Context of the Family First Prevention Services Act Report 2024
Authors Krista Thomas, Olivia Wilks / Chapin Hall 2024. Many families facing difficulties often don’t receive support until their situations become serious, putting them at risk of child welfare involvement.
Toolkit Mobilizing on the Right to Housing for Women, Two-Spirit, & Gender-Diverse People
If you or your community has been impacted by the gendered housing crisis, your voice is needed! Check out the toolkit to learn how you can get involved in this historic process.
ESPC Report: A Profile of Poverty in Edmonton: 2024
This report presents a snapshot of what poverty looks like in Edmonton in 2024.
Homelessness Data Improvement Framework (Homelessness Learning Hub)
This tool can also be used to guide discussions on data quality amongst community partners and local leaders
CDS Sector Priorities 2023 – 2026 (PDD)
ACDS has highlighted seven priorities to guide our advocacy work for the CDS sector and corresponding collaborative opportunities with the Government of Alberta
ALIGN Statement: Nurturing Children’s Needs: Analyzing the Connection of Gender Policy in Alberta
Understanding the Importance of Gender Policy in Alberta: Promoting Children's Rights and Well-Being
Youth Perspectives on FNS Wraparound Supports (Homeless Hub)
This blog explores the impact of the The Family and Natural Supports FNS intervention’s wraparound approach and how it addresses some unique issues youth have faced.
Violence Prevention Modules (Shift to Learn)
Efforts to prevent domestic and sexual violence relies on the size and competence of the primary prevention workforce, as well as our ability to innovate, design, develop, plan, implement, monitor, and evaluate primary prevention initiatives to understand impact and change.
ALIGN Journal for Services to Children and Families 2024
The ALIGN Journal for Services to Children and Families (the Journal) is intended to be a forum for significant, critical and serious inquiry related to the work of the agencies – children, youth, families, organizations, leadership and wellness. ALIGN Journals support strengthening member agencies and promoting attitudes, practices and conditions that contribute to quality services for children and families
Alberta.ca Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence (CoRE)
Based in Alberta, Canada, CoRE will provide leadership in recovery excellence within Alberta, across Canada, and internationally by informing best practices for recovery, conducting research and program evaluation, and supporting the development of evidence-based policy.
A Caregivers Guide to FASD Diagnosis for Kinship, Foster Parents (CanFASD)
This guide is intended for caregivers with children who are soon-to-be assessed for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), or have recently been diagnosed with FASD.
Culture is Healing: An Indigenous Child & Youth Mental Wellness Framework
First Nations are disproportionately represented in the number of people dying by toxic drug poisoning. The Our Children Our Way Society recognizes the urgency of this crisis and that an immediate and dedicated response is needed now.
Toolkit for Communities: Considerations for Creating a Lived Experience Circle on Homelessness
This toolkit available on the homelessness learning hub supports small cities and rural communities interested in creating advisory groups of people with lived or living experience of homelessness
Alberta Living Wage Network - Research & Resources
A living wage is the hourly wage a worker needs to earn to cover their basic expenses and participate in their community.
Caregiver Resources for Natural Disasters and Emergencies
Emergencies and disasters can impact individual, family and community well-being. Children’s reactions to disasters and their aftermath are strongly influenced by how their parents, grandparents, families, teachers, and other caregivers cope during and after the events
Maytree's Social Assistance Summaries for Territories and Provinces & Welfare in Canada Report
To support your advocacy efforts, find the latest data for the number of social assistance recipients and welfare incomes in every province and territory
