2025 Summit Report

These Areas of Action provide a clear, achievable path for the next 2–3 years

Canada is at a decisive moment for children and youth. Despite Canada’s relative prosperity, outcomes for young people continue to lag behind those of peer nations due to fragmented systems, uneven access to supports, and a lack of coordinated national leadership. Yet across the country, there is strong consensus on the changes required to achieve measurable, equitable improvement.

Inspiring Healthy Futures’ updated Areas of Action outline six national priorities that can drive meaningful progress:

• Develop an Integrated Child and Youth Data & Evidence System: turning data into information that is actionable in everyday decision-making, planning, and service improvement.

• Integrate Knowing, Learning, and Action Across Systems: moving from one-off pilots to embedded learning at scale.

• Increase Prevention and Promote Health, Mental Health, and Social Literacy: shifting investment from reactive crisis response to strength-based, preventative supports.

• Expand Access to Community Supports and Whole-Community Approaches: investing in the relational infrastructure where children and families actually live.

• Build Child-Centred Systems and Improve Transitions: designing pathways around developmental trajectories rather than institutional boundaries.

• Strengthen Leadership, Governance, and Shared Accountability: embedding youth, family, and Indigenous leadership in formal, compensated roles.

We are calling on leaders across sectors to:

• Align around the six national priorities and integrate them into strategic plans.

• Contribute to and adopt a shared national set of child well-being indicators.

• Participate in the national coalition to coordinate action across research, practice, policy, and community systems, including aligning research agendas with system-wide priorities.

• Use a shared communications narrative rooted in rights, equity, community strength, and economic value.

• Share innovations and build a learning ecosystem—not isolated pilots.

Canada has the knowledge, capacity, and collective will to create systems where every child and youth thrives. These Areas of Action provide a clear, achievable path for the next 2–3 years. With coordinated leadership, long-term investment, and a commitment to equity and prevention, Canada can transform a fragmented landscape into a coherent system that reflects the rights, cultures, and aspirations of young people across the country.

The time to act—decisively and together—is now.

Read the 2025 Summit Report (PDF)