Officially launched in 2015, the Ottawa Collaborative for Parenting Support (OCPS), operates under the Ottawa Child and Youth Initiative umbrella. It is a community of partners working together to build resilient families that can support their children’s healthy development, feel empowered, and are able to cope with the ups and downs of everyday living.

In Ottawa, a collaborative approach has been selected to address the need for parenting support.  A collaborative approach will potentially allow for improved access to services while maximizing resources in an attempt to better support families. The community support strategy for parents derives from a strong base of literature showing that parental involvement within the social and academic aspects of their children provides them with a better chance of future success in those areas.

A Strategy which Highlights Potential: A positive approach to parent support, which encourages parents to take on responsibility, which is founded in family and community strength and support, an which encourages parent engagement and participation in their child's development.

Our Collaborative Parenting Support Strategy aims to:

• Engage parents in their child/youth's social and academic development
  
• Model and support best practices to ensure that programs and services designed to support parents in Ottawa are of the highest quality
  
• Provide parents with the necessary means and information to access services and resources available to them in the community
  
• Expand and develop current information resources available, to ensure documents provided to parents/clients are clear and appropriate.
  
• Facilitate access and orientation to services for parents which are best suited to meet the needs of their family