Strategic Direction 3: Collaborate with partners to maximize impact, focusing on Durham Region
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Building strong partnerships is essential to delivering impact. Within our 2024-27 Strategic Plan, Powering Potential, is a strategic direction to “collaborate with partners to maximize impact, focusing on Durham Region.” Through 18 unique interviews with community partners during the Strategic Plan Engagement Phase, we consistently heard that Grandview Kids is a valued partner and that we are seen as eager collaborators and system connectors.
In 2024–25, our work with community partners enabled us to reach more children and youth with physical, communication and developmental needs across Durham Region. Watch the video below as Grandview Kids CEO Tom McHugh highlights key partnerships that have flourished at Grandview Kids in the last year.
Partnering with elected officials across all levels of government
In 2024-25, Grandview Kids served over 11,000 clients, providing more than 144,310 hours of total client care across the Durham Region. Our organization’s reach extends to every municipality in Durham Region and the schools within Toronto. The geographic area served continues to experience rapid population growth, requiring continued advocacy and innovative models of care. This is why, in the last fiscal year, we continued our advocacy to government officials and policymakers to secure sustained funding to support the delivery of our programs and services.
In the last year, we were able to experience significant growth, directly enabled through our continued advocacy to our government partners. Grandview Kids’ new Ajax-based headquarters, a decades-long dream, became a reality when it opened in Fall 2024. Funding for our new headquarters was in part provided by the Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services (MCCSS) and the Government of Canada. Thanks to these strong relationships, Grandview Kids continues its mission to live, learn and play in an inclusive community where we all belong.
Ensuring that Grandview Kids regularly engages in open dialogue with elected officials at all levels of government, including partners at the municipal, regional, provincial and federal levels, is key to enabling our organization to continue to enhance its service offerings and build capacity. We are fortunate to reside in a Region with supportive government partners who recognize the significant value of investing in paediatric rehabilitation and developmental services. In the next year, we will continue to advocate for increased base funding to meet the rapidly growing needs of the children, youth and families of Durham.
Ajax Public Library
On November 20, 2024, the Ajax Public Library – Grandview Kids Express Branch at The Jerry Coughlan Building opened its doors. This event realized a long-time goal of both organizations to open a joint branch, initially planned when establishing a formal partnership in early 2023. The 640-square-foot branch is located inside the Family Resource Centre on Level 1 of our Ajax-based headquarters. This cozy, inviting space has been designed with clients and their families in mind. Visitors can borrow Sensory Kits and a mix of fiction and non-fiction items, and request items from other library locations for pickup at the Grandview Kids location.
Importantly, the Grandview Kids collection is on full display at the Express Branch, showcasing a variety of resources curated by Team Grandview for local families, caregivers, and educators. This collection includes the new Grandview Kids book, “A Place Where Everyone Belongs.” It is a book about belonging, inclusion and acceptance. It shows readers all the different ways that people may move, communicate, play or learn. Grandview Kids is a place that celebrates and supports these differences. It’s a place where everyone belongs.
The Family Engagement Team carefully curated the story and pictures to reflect the diversity of experiences and needs of Grandview Kids clients and their families. It is a deeply meaningful reflection of who we serve and why we do this work.
We are grateful to Lyn Coughlan and her late husband, Jerry Coughlan, for believing in the Family Engagement Team and providing funding to kick-start the book. The book can be purchased via debit or credit for $15 at Grandview Kids Café in The Jerry Coughlan Building at 1461 Harwood Road in Ajax. Proceeds support the Family Engagement Program.
Additionally, this high-value partnership between our organizations enables us to leverage each other’s strengths and avoid duplicating each other’s expertise while continuing to enhance service offerings. Since its opening, the Grandview Kids Express Branch has become the busiest library location per square foot. The branch’s collection utilization is a remarkable 122%, with every item circulated one or more times.
Since opening the Grandview Kids Express Branch, as partners, we have delivered 12 sensory-friendly programs serving nearly 80 participants. Ranging from sensory storytimes to movie days, we strive to provide consistent and engaging programs for our community. These programs highlight the mutually beneficial nature of high-functioning partnerships: our families gain access to inclusive activities and readily available resources, while the Library gains insights to enhance programming across its network.
The Barrett Centre of Innovation in Sustainable Urban Agriculture
One of the most exciting emerging collaborations Grandview Kids formalized in 2024-25 was with The Barrett Centre of Innovation in Sustainable Urban Agriculture (The Barrett Centre). Established by Durham College and supported by The Barrett Family Foundation, the Centre is a hub for sustainable farming, education and research in Ajax. In fact, it is located only a few minutes from our new headquarters on Harwood Avenue North. In this partnership, Grandview Kids and The Barrett Centre will develop and provide accessible opportunities for clients and families to interact with and access urban farming practices through various programs and workshops. We look forward to the fiscal year ahead as our organization ramps up engagement activities for the children, youth and families Grandview Kids serves.
Launching a Family Engagement Community of Practice with Empowered Kids Ontario
Through Grandview Kids’ commitment to ensuring the valuable voice of our clients and families directly impacts the care they receive, we were honoured to launch a provincial community of practice through Empowered Kids Ontario focused on family engagement in paediatric rehabilitation services. With Grandview Kids acting as a Co-Chair, the community of practice has grown to 15 members, supporting other Children’s Treatment Centres across Ontario in enhancing their inclusion of clients and families in decision-making processes. With Grandview Kids helping to champion this work, the family voice is being embedded with greater intention at a system level. We look forward to building upon this strong network of individuals committed to ensuring the prominence of the family voice in the Children’s Treatment Centre sector. We want to extend a special thanks to Andrea Belanger, Manager of Family Engagement, for her dedicated work in enabling this partnership as the lead from Grandview Kids.
Sloane’s House
In early 2025, Grandview Kids and Sloane’s House celebrated their shared commitment to providing family-centred care to children and youth with communication, physical and developmental needs in Durham Region through a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Sloane’s House is a paediatric respite and hospice care centre to be created in the Durham Region. The organization aims to become a place where families of children up to twenty-one years old with complex medical needs can join their team of caring professionals and supportive community of parents and caregivers to receive respite, palliative and end-of-life care. Sloane’s House will demonstrate leading practices, innovation and a high level of skill, training and compassion in its care, upholding the dignity and respect of each client and their family. Grandview Kids’ experience delivering care to children and youth with complex medical needs through programs like the Durham Complex Care Program uniquely positions it to support Sloane’s House’s mission. Through this experience, Grandview Kids deeply understands the need to develop and enhance accessible, supportive programming for families caring for children or youth with medical complexity.
The MOU outlines the shared objective of Grandview Kids and Sloane’s House to support children and youth with complex medical needs, along with their families, in accessing much-needed respite programming and specialized training opportunities focused on grief and bereavement supports. The MOU will enable the development of programs through the counsel of clients, caregivers and Grandview Kids staff, provide resources for families navigating the various stages of grief, facilitate therapy opportunities and events and enhance access to services dedicated to children and youth with complex medical needs and their families.
Through the generous support of donors, Sloane’s House plans to build a dedicated paediatric respite and hospice care centre in Whitby, Ontario. The agreement enables Sloane’s House staff to utilize Grandview Kids’ physical spaces to host meetings and events as they plan their next steps to fund and build a dedicated centre.
The MOU signifies both organizations’ shared commitment to increasing the availability of support for parents and caregivers and their children with high health needs. This partnership also recognizes the importance of providing respite services and grief and bereavement support to parents and caregivers who deliver care with limited access to programming and resources tailored to their needs.
At Grandview Kids, we know we can achieve more faster when working together. Cultivating and maintaining high-quality, mutually beneficial partnerships in our community is essential to ensuring all children and youth across the Durham Region have access to the care they need, when they need it.
Thank you to our incredible partners for helping us build a stronger, more inclusive future for children and youth with physical, communication and developmental needs and their families. We look forward to another year of collaborating on innovative and engaging initiatives with you.
