Community Action Program for Children (CAPC)

The Community Action Program for Children (CAPC) provides funding to community groups that promote the healthy development of young children from birth to age 6, who face challenges that put their health at risk, such as:

• Poverty
• Teen pregnancy
• Social and geographic isolation
• Substance use
• Family violence

Through this initiative, the Public Health Agency of Canada funds 410 CAPC projects serving over 225,000 vulnerable children and parents/caregivers across Canada each year.

Goals of the Community Action Program for Children

Improve healthy child development by:

• Improving parenting skills and parent-child relationships
• Decreasing social isolation
• Increasing child self-esteem
• Providing child-focused activities, such as preschool programs and play groups

Promote and create partnerships within communities to:

• Actively involve the people they serve in the planning, managing, developing, delivering, and evaluation of their programs
• Strengthen community capacity
• Support vulnerable children and their families

Types of support

CAPC sites adapt their activities to meet the needs of the people they serve. Their programs may include:

• Nutritional support and collective kitchens
• Family resource centres
• Parenting classes and drop-in groups
• Child health and development activities
• Outreach and home visiting programs
• Specialized programs, such as support for mothers dealing with substance abuse

Evaluating the Community Action Program for Children

• Most recent CAPC evaluation
• Infographic: Celebrating 25 years of CAPC

Funding

CAPC provides $54.1 million in annual funding to community groups to develop and deliver comprehensive, culturally appropriate prevention and early intervention programs for vulnerable children aged 0-6 years.

All funding for CAPC projects is currently committed.

Read about the Public Health Agency of Canada's grants and contributions programs, how and why we give funding and who has had funding from us.

Other programs you might be interested in

Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program

Provides funding to community groups to help to improve the health of pregnant women, new mothers and their babies, who face challenges that put their health at risk.

Aboriginal Head Start in Urban and Rural Communities

Funds programs that promote the healthy development of Indigenous preschool children. It supports the spiritual, emotional, intellectual and physical development of Indigenous children, while supporting their parents and guardians as their primary teachers.

Nobody's Perfect

A facilitated, community-based parenting program for parents of children from birth to age five. The program is designed to meet the needs of parents who are young, single, socially or geographically isolated, or who have low income or limited formal education.