HAMILTON, ON, June 23, 2026 /CNW/ - Child maltreatment remains a serious and prevalent public health issue in Canada, with profound and lasting impacts on the health and well-being of children, families, and communities. Today, Aslam Rana, Member of Parliament for Hamilton Centre, on behalf of the Honourable Marjorie Michel, Minister of Health, announced an investment of $3 million in two projects to help prevent and address child maltreatment.

This funding will strengthen prevention efforts that support safe and healthy relationships, identify and address risks faced by children and families, and reinforce community supports. These projects will also equip service providers with evidence–based training and resources to help prevent child maltreatment and its health impacts. Funding recipients are:

• McMaster University is receiving $1.7 million for its project to promote positive outcomes for youth in care. This project aims to address the risk factors and systemic barriers that contribute to youth falling into the child welfare system over multiple generations. It will help support more youth in care as they move into adulthood, and evaluate its long term impacts on their lives. 
• Niwasa Kendaaswin Teg is receiving $1.3 million for their project to adapt, co-create, deliver and evaluate a nation-specific (Anishinaabe) version of the Nobody's Perfect Parenting Program. This Anishnaabe version of the culturally adapted, community-led program will promote positive parenting, and will be tested in three urban, northern and rural communities across Ontario as an intervention for the prevention of child maltreatment. 

These projects will help prevent child maltreatment and family violence in Hamilton and across Canada, keeping children safe and free from threats to their safety and well-being.

Quotes

"The health effects of experiencing violence can be complex and long-lasting, even affecting future generations. By strengthening knowledge and skills, and encouraging positive shifts in attitudes and behaviours, we can foster healing and promote wellbeing. With the right support, children in Hamilton and beyond can thrive in a safer and healthier environment where they can grow and flourish."

The Honourable Marjorie Michel
Minister of Health

"Child maltreatment has impacts that can last a lifetime, affecting a person's physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being. McMaster University and Niwasa Kendaaswin Teg are taking steps to prevent harm and reduce its long–term effects. By investing in these projects, we are protecting our children and strengthening our families, and building healthier futures."

Aslam Rana
Member of Parliament for Hamilton Centre

"Through community-driven research practices, Niwasa Kendaaswin Teg's Restorying the Bundle project will be grounded in Anishinaabe language, teachings, and cultural practices that inform and guide understandings of family and child wellness. This work contributes to reclaiming caregiving supports rooted in the strength and knowledge of our communities."

Monique Lavallee
Executive Director, Niwasa Kendaaswin Teg

"We are deeply grateful to the Public Health Agency of Canada for this investment in equity-driven systems change to support youth in and from care. In co-leading this work at McMaster University with the National Council of Youth in Care Advocates, we are building on their visionary, lived-expertise-led efforts that have already begun to transform how Canada supports young people leaving care. Together, we are committed to ensuring that every young person leaving care is supported with dignity, readiness, and the resources they need to thrive. Canada is poised to be a global leader in this work, and this funding and partnership brings that vision closer to reality."

Melissa Kimber, PhD, MSW, RSW
Associate Professor & Chedoke Health Chair in Child Psychiatry, McMaster University

Quick facts

• Funded through the Public Health Agency of Canada's Preventing Family Violence Program, these projects will advance and test health promotion interventions that benefit children, families and caregivers.
• Child maltreatment is physical, sexual, emotional abuse and neglect a child experiences by, a parent, caregiver or other person in a relationship of responsibility, trust, or power. It includes exposure to intimate partner violence such as seeing, hearing or being indirectly exposed to abuse and injuries between adults in the home or experiencing the outcome.
• As part of It's Time: Canada's Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-based Violence, the federal Gender-based Violence Strategy, the Government of Canada has invested more than $820 million since 2017, with $44 million per year ongoing in preventing gender-based violence (including family violence); supporting victims, survivors, and their families; and promoting a responsive justice system.
• The Government of Canada invested $539.3 million over five years (2022 to 2027), including $525 million over four years to support provinces and territories in their efforts to implement the National Action Plan to End Gender-based Violence. The federal Gender-based Violence Strategy is the federal contribution to the National Action Plan to End Gender-based Violence.

Associated links

• Family violence and your health
• Get help: Family violence helplines and services
• Preventing and addressing family violence investment

SOURCE Health Canada (HC)