About Us
Our about us, includes you.
Will you join us?
Will you be a game changer for the children, youth, and families we work alongside in our communities? Together, we can instill hope, inspire dreams, and support parents and caregivers to build healthy families in a safe, compassionate, and culturally sensitive environment.
Will you help to break down the barriers that keep children and youth from lives of joy and purpose. Help us ensure no child is left behind?
Our Story
Children’s Aid Foundation Ontario was established in 2003 as the Peel Children’s Aid Foundation to raise funds to support innovative and urgently needed programs and services for children, youth and families in the Region of Peel. These programs receive little to no government-funding. We hope to inspire you to support programs that give children and youth in our community the chance to experience nurturing childhoods, equal opportunity to education, and future success.
In August 2024, Peel CAF changed their name to Children’s Aid Foundation Ontario as part of a strategy to co-create an equitable philanthropic landscape in the child welfare space.
Mission
Our mission is to inspire philanthropic action to eliminate barriers for children, youth, and families in our communities of care.
Vision
We envision an equitable society where the potential of children, youth and families is not limited. Will you join us to create a more equitable world?
Values
We are guided by our values to embrace inclusivity, be respectful, ensure transparency and accountability, and promote collaboration and innovation.
Purpose
Writer Maya Angelou wrote: “Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space. Invite one to stay.”
We choose hope. You can too. Will you bring hope and opportunity to the children, youth and families we work alongside?
We provide funding through three funds. We’ve highlighted a few of the areas supported under each.
Health and Wellness
When you give to our Health & Wellness Fund you support the short and long-term health and wellness needs of the children, youth, and families we work alongside. Your gifts create opportunities for children to enjoy childhood milestones considered to be a normal part of life by most of their peers. Your gift will help a young person to receive special assistance in overcoming obstacles life has presented. This program was created to give the children, youth, and families we work alongside the opportunity to take part in a purposeful, safe and healthy childhood.
Programs Include: Infant & Maternal Wellness, Comfort Kits, Complex Needs Program, Youth Starter Kit, Community Care Program.
Organizational Capacity & Innovation
Your support of our organizational capacity and innovation fund helps us retain the very best staff, update, learn, and innovate. Future programs could include research and development, program evaluation and prevention programs.
Current Programs Include: Early Help and Prevention Project, Kinship Appreciation & Awareness Event, Staff & Volunteer Development Programs, Marketing/Community Engagement, Technology.
Future Possibilities
When you give to our Future Possibilities Fund you support the children, youth, and families we work alongside to build the skills they need to prepare for a future of independence, self-determination, and agency.
Through the Future Possibilities Fund donors are committed to changing these numbers and giving more children and youth in care access to post-secondary education, and skill building opportunities to help them set goals and work towards success.
Programs Include: Post-Secondary Education Bursaries, Trailblazers Youth Centre, Youth Council, Financial Literacy, Youth Success, Running Group, Stay in School, Cooking Towards Independence, Child Welfare Immigration Centre of Excellence (CWICE).