Two Peterborough-based organizations serving children with autism are among those across Ontario that will receive additional provincial funding to improve their workforce capacity.
On Wednesday (June 25), Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith announced that Canopy Support Services and Five Counties Children’s Centre are among 100 public and private autism service providers that will receive funding as part of a $37 million investment in the Ontario Autism Program (OAP) over the next two years.
“We’re extremely grateful for this new funding,” Bill Eekhof, spokesperson for Five Counties Children’s Centre, told kawarthaNOW.
“But it’s still early days, as we are still putting plans into place on how best to use it to better support children and their families enrolled in the OAP,” Eekhof added. “That is the stated goal of this new funding, which we will put to good use to achieve.”
According to the provincial government, the OAP was introduced in 2017 to provide a single point of access for families of children and youth under the age of 18 with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.
Since then, it has served tens of thousands of autistic children and youth through multiple program stream, including caregiver-mediated early years programs, an entry to school program, foundational family services, core clinical services, and urgent response services.
“This is fantastic news for Peterborough families,” MPP Smith said about the new OAP funding.
“Our government’s sustained investment in organizations like Canopy Support Services and Five Counties Children’s Centre underscores our commitment to ensuring children with autism receive the vital support they need, right here in their own community. By strengthening these local providers, we’re building a more stable, skilled workforce and ensuring more families can access life-changing services closer to home.”
Autism service providers are receiving the funding through the OAP’s workforce capacity fund, which provides two-year grants from $50,000 to $400,000 so service providers can hire additional staff or increase the hours of existing staff, provide staff training, invest in technology, and provide services in rural and remote communities.
Five Counties Children’s Centre will be receiving a $400,000 grant to support their essential services and enable the enhancement of their therapy programs.
“This two-year funding commitment provides us the seed money to staff and develop sustainable services for children enrolled in the OAP,” said Scott Pepin, CEO of Five Counties Children’s Centre. “This will help us fill a need in our communities for families enrolled in the OAP, allowing them to use their funding to access services in a timelier fashion.”
Meanwhile, Canopy Support Services will receive a $399,921 grant to continue delivering and expanding its programs and support for individuals and families in the community.
“We are pleased to receive this funding for the next two years to support the integration of mental health care within autism service delivery,” said Himanshu Shah, CEO of Canopy Support Services.
Shah said the funding will allow Canopy Support Services to enhance its overall capacity to deliver core clinical services across the communities it serves.
According to the province, the Ontario government has awarded more than 350 grants to autism service providers across the province since the OAP’s workforce capacity fund was created in 2021. Grants awarded in 2022 and 2023 supported training for more than 2,000 staff, funded more than 500 clinician positions, and helped serve an additional 6,000 children and youth on the autism spectrum.
