Membership Benefits

The SPARK Knowledge Mobilization (KMb) program is focused on curating, showcasing, and promoting the use of evidence (from research, practice, policy, lived/living experience) to spark conversations, ideas, and action. SPARK offers members the opportunity to showcase local expertise and innovations, and a safe space to identify and discuss emerging issues.

SPARK: Impact is an innovative KMb consultation and support service for child health researchers to promote research impact. SPARK: Impact offers researchers support in the development of KMb plans, including co-developed, tailored products to enable the timely sharing of findings with national audiences. Researchers can leverage Children's Healthcare Canada’s extensive products and channels to share their outcomes with a broader child health audience and accelerate the evidence to impact process.  

See the full list of services offered through SPARK: Impact here.

SPARK: Live is a webinar series dedicated to bringing together trusted and credible voices from across the child and youth healthcare continuum.  Each episode features cutting-edge research and other evidence (practice, policy, leadership, and lived experience) in child and youth health and healthcare and innovations from across the child healthcare continuum. Suggest topics or speakers for upcoming webinars.

SPARK: Conversations is a monthly podcast that connects the child health community with system leaders who tackle wicked problems and discuss ideas to inform the development of innovative and integrated healthcare systems serving children and youth.

SPARK: News is a bi-weekly email bulletin featuring upcoming events and activities, highlights from members, job postings, and relevant resources and articles. With a growing distribution list of more than 8,000 subscribers, SPARK: News can keep you in the loop with Children’s Healthcare Canada’s offerings, and helps members share news and updates with a national audience. Subscribe here.

How to get involved: reach out to the Children’s Healthcare Canada SPARK team at spark@childrenshealthcarecanada.ca.

Annual Conference 

Children’s Healthcare Canada hosts an Annual Conference, which takes place in the spring and brings together perspectives from across the entire continuum of care to explore improvements in healthcare systems serving children and youth in Canada.

Delegates engage in thoughtful dialogue to learn about and influence system integration, participate in workshops designed to inspire local quality improvement, participate in local site visits of children’s healthcare delivery organizations, and deepen relationships with peers across the country. The conference program and poster fair also provide opportunities to showcase local innovation.

How to get involved: Take advantage of discounted member pricing to send a delegation of your colleagues to the Conference. Questions? Please contact conference@childhealthcan.ca.

Pop-Up events 

Pop-Up events are single-issue, focused events that are often held virtually. Pop-Up events provide members a space to share research, new/promising programs, and services, convene thought leaders to identify and prioritize health system issues, identify gaps in research or services, and build national relationships and network with colleagues across the country.

How to get involved: Share suggestions for topics or speakers by reaching out to the SPARK Team at spark@childhealthcan.ca.

Building on a strong history of national collaboration, Networks are designed to meet member identified needs and advance strategic priorities. These are an exclusive benefit for members, who can choose to join as many networks as they like.

1.Executive Network

This network, facilitated by Children’s Healthcare Canada, is designed specifically for executive-level leaders from member organizations. It provides a confidential and responsive forum for leaders and executives to engage with and learn from each other, exploring healthcare and health system challenges of highest priority to them. This Network also helps the Association to identify emerging issues and vet policy priorities. The Executive Network is an active participant in Child Health Hill Day (Children’s Healthcare Canada’s Advocacy Day on Parliament Hill).

2. Practice & Policy Networks 

These focused, member-only, multidisciplinary networks are facilitated by Children’s Healthcare Canada and provide members with networking opportunities and access to evidence and subject matter expertise on a specific population (e.g., children with medical complexity) or area of interest (e.g., children’s pain).  They are a forum for evidence-informed and innovative problem-solving and their work is aligned with Children's Healthcare Canada strategic and emerging priorities.

3. Family Network

This is a national network, hosted by Children's Healthcare Canada, led by a steering committee comprised of family partners whose child(ren) is or has been served by member organizations. The Family Network ensures that the perspectives, and priorities of those with lived/living experience inform the Association’s priorities, products, services, and activities. Members have the opportunity to inform Children’s Healthcare Canada strategic plan as well as act as subject matter experts in Association communications, knowledge mobilization events, and advocacy  activities.

4. Child Health Hubs 

These networks are facilitated and led by members and connect colleagues from member organizations with “like” peers from across the country to share evidence, know-how, and resources; seek advice and guidance from colleagues; and exchange resources.

How to get involved: Reach out to networks@childrenhealthcarecanada.ca to register for the network(s) or hub(s) of choice.

In 2021, Children’s Healthcare Canada, UNICEF Canada, the Pediatric Chairs of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Institute for Human Development, Child and Youth Health) (CIHR-IHDCYH), convened over 1,500 strategic partners (youth, parents, researchers, educators, advocates, policymakers, healthcare and social service providers, community and business leaders, and others ) to co-create a vision and roadmap to measurably improve children’s health and wellbeing. A collective action framework named “Inspiring Healthy Futures” emerged, centered on mobilizing youth with an aim to shape and inform research collaborations, child-centred policy, and accessible health systems and school and community hubs.  Inspiring Healthy Futures continues to be a thriving, cross-sector community of champions for children, with a secretariat based at Children’s Healthcare Canada.

Children’s health systems across the country and the continuum of care have been underfunded for decades. In an effort to develop a vision and action plan to right-size health systems serving children, youth and their families, Children’s Healthcare Canada convened partners including the Canadian Paediatric Society, the Canadian Association of Pediatric Nurses and the Pediatric Chairs of Canada to co-create recommendations targeting the Federal, Provincial and Territorial governments, children’s healthcare delivery organizations and children’s advocates. The final report entitled Beyond Bandaids: Delivering Healthcare Fit for Kids outlines a collective vision for an accessible, equitable, connected healthcare system designed to improve experiences and outcomes of healthcare for children and youth.

Watch for opportunities to join conversations and participate in activities with our strategic partners!

Through engagement with members, parliamentarians, committees, and senior bureaucrats, we:

• Lend subject matter expertise on matters related to children’s health and wellbeing;
• Develop tools to support member engagement with elected officials;
• Conduct public opinion polling to support and influence child health policy,
• Host a national child health lobby day (Hill Day) to connect Children’s Healthcare Canada members with elected and appointed members of Parliament, and senior decision-makers.

Visit childhealthcan.ca/advocacy to view recent work.

How to get involved: Please reach out to advocacy@childhealthcan.ca to learn more or get involved. 

An Executive Leader with each member organization, who is responsible for membership renewal and who will represent your organization on the Executive Network.

A communications team lead is identified from each member organization to share their organization’s breaking news and success stories with Children’s Healthcare Canada and to socialize the Association’s products, events, and services with specific departments or their entire organization via internal newsletters, intranet posts, or other channels.