Resources & Updates
ALIGN CONNECTIONS For Indigenous Children/Youth & Caregivers March 2026
CONNECTIONS is monthly newsletter designed to support Foster and Kinship Caregivers to ensure First Nations, Metis & Inuit children in their care have access to cultural resources, activities and events that broaden their cultural awareness.
How ALIGN Members Benefit from National Polling Report Series: Mental Health of Canadians
This series, from Mental Health Research Canada (MHRC) tracks Canadians’ mental health and offers real-time insights into how Canadians are currently coping and where disparities exist and persist.
Alberta.ca Release - MAID protections for Albertans with mental illness
New legislation would introduce safeguards for medical assistance in dying (MAID) to ensure it is not used in place of care or support for mental illness or disabilities.
Meet ALIGN's Corporate Members
Through generous contributions and strategic partnerships, ALIGN's corporate members help strengthen the financial sustainability and the sector-wide reach and impact of our programs.
What Budget 2026 Means for ALIGN Members and the Disability Service Sector
Budget 2026, if passed, will invest $3.7 billion to support Albertans with disabilities, the highest level of investment in the history of the province.
Why New Data on Gaps in Government Policy Engagement Matters to ALIGN Members
New findings from the Charity Insights Canada Project reveal ongoing challenges in how governments and the charitable sector collaborate on policy issues.Among 881 respondents, many rated government engagement as ineffective—particularly at the provincial and territorial levels, where more than half expressed negative views. Respondents highlighted the need for more consistent, structured dialogue between governments and the sector, as well as stronger coordination on messaging to help amplify the sector’s collective voice.
Alberta.ca Changes to Long‑Term Illness and Injury Leave
The Government of Alberta is updating the rules for long‑term illness and injury leave under provincial employment standards to help employees take the time they need to recover from illness or injury. These changes are not related to workers’ compensation benefits or work‑related injury claims.
Youth Homelessness Prevention Toolkit for Communities
A Way Home Canada, Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and Making the Shift Social Innovation Lab (MtS) have launched a new toolkit that provides communities with practical tools to strengthen their homelessness plans by implementing coordinated, data-driven, and cost-effective youth homelessness prevention policies and programs.
Participate in WCB-Alberta Policy Consultations
WCB-Alberta reviews their funding policy every three years. As part of their policy project plan and their 2026 strategy map and objectives, they are seeking public input on their funding policy to ensure an appropriate balance of the needs of Albertans with system sustainability.
2026 Federal Pre-budget Consultations
Submissions will be accepted until April 30, 2026. This process is an important opportunity for charities and nonprofits to share policy priorities ahead of the next federal budget.
Working Paper From Resources to Routines: The Importance of Stability in the Developmental Environment
This working paper from the Early Childhood Scientific Council on Equity and the Environment explores how stability shapes children’s health and development. It offers strategies for policymakers, community leaders, service providers, and others to increase stability, as well as practical recommendations for developing more resilient systems that support young children and their caregivers.
AHS Pediatric Rehabilitation Resources
Pediatric rehabilitation helps children and youth live the best life they can, build resilience, and take part in the activities meaningful to them and their families.
March is National Social Work Month in Canada
National Social Work Month each March and Social Work Week in Alberta, celebrated from March 2 to 8, 2026. ALIGN proudly acknowledges and celebrates the invaluable contributions of social workers across Alberta!
ALIGN CONNECTIONS For Indigenous Children/Youth & Caregivers February 2026
CONNECTIONS is monthly newsletter designed to support Foster and Kinship Caregivers to ensure First Nations, Metis & Inuit children in their care have access to cultural resources, activities and events that broaden their cultural awareness.
Join Us! ALIGN Regional Chapter Meetings
We invite all ALIGN Association to participate in Regional Chapter Meetings. ALIGN chapter meetings serve as a vital platform for collaboration, learning, advocacy, and enhancing the effectiveness of non-profit and charitable agencies. We are stronger together!
ALIGN's OHS Community of Practice (CoP)
Next meeting April 14, 2026. Communities of Practice often focus on sharing best practices and creating new knowledge to advance a domain of professional practice. Interaction on an ongoing basis is an important part of this.
ALIGN's Well-Being in Child and Family Services Toolkit
The way we define and understand child and youth well-being matters.
ALIGN's Indigenous Cultural Understanding Framework (ICUF)
A Digital Interactive Journey to increase cultural understanding within Alberta agencies so that all Indigenous children living in Alberta can live in dignity and respect, supported by people with a deeper understanding of Indigenous worldviews, history and current reality.
ALIGN’s Well-Being Toolkit Community of Practice (CoP)
Next meeting is April 8, 2026. The Well-Being Community of Practice (CoP) is intended for service providers who are currently implementing ALIGN Association's Well-Being Toolkit. A Community of Practice (CoP) is an informal learning space where like-minded practitioners come together to share experiences, challenges, tools, and promising practices. The Well-Being Community of Practice focuses on strengthening the impact of child- and family-serving organizations on child and youth well-being.
ALIGN'S Reconciliation Action Planning Consultation Service
ALIGN’s Reconciliation Action Planning Consultation Service provides Community Service Providers with tailored resources fostering meaningful engagement and support for reconciliation efforts within your organization and community.
ADS Report: Alberta Disability Summit: Listening in a Good Way-Indigenous Perspectives on Disability (ALIGN)
Listening in a Good Way: Indigenous Perspectives on Disability shares what was heard at the Alberta Disability Summit November 27, 2026 – Indigenous Cultural Understanding, held on Tsuut’ina Nation. This reflection centres Indigenous voices, lived experience, and community knowledge, highlighting barriers, strengths, and opportunities to move disability services toward more culturally grounded, relationship-based approaches.
ICYMI: Building Data Infrastructure Needed to Prevent Youth Homelessness in Canada: Learnings from BC and Calgary
What would youth homelessness prevention look like if reliable data moved across systems to inform action? The Prevention Matters! panel explored how collaborative data use across systems can strengthen policy, research, and coordinated approaches to youth homelessness prevention in Canada
ALIGN’s Winter Count Project: Acimowina – Teaching Stories
Six months before the AGM, we gathered in ceremony led by Elder Harley Crowshoe at Trellis Society, within Treaty 7 territory—the traditional lands of the Blackfoot Confederacy. This wasn’t just a meeting; it was a beginning. Elder Harley guided us in grounding our process in cultural protocol and spiritual intention. From that moment, the Winter Count became more than a project—it became a journey.
The Nonprofit’s Guide to Using AI Responsibly in the Boardroom (Tech for Good)
AI is poised to reshape how nonprofit leaders prepare, collaborate, and make decisions. This guide from Tech for Good is designed to help nonprofit boards navigate this transformation responsibly.
Bridging the distance: feeling connected when apart (Canadian Consortium on Child & Youth Trauma)
Includes strategies that have proven effective in helping to strengthen the parent-child relationship in preparation for and during separation.
OY Works Online Toolkit Helps Employers Recruit Young People Ages 18 - 29
This new one-stop online toolkit from OY Works, helps employers recruit, onboard, mentor, and retain Opportunity Youth (OY), young people 18-29 years old not currently in school, training or work and who face barriers to employment.
MHRC Report: Mental Health Pulse Check 2025
As leaders focus on strengthening Canada’s economy, this report created in partnership with GreenShield, highlighting mental health insights from 2025 and identifying critical areas of focus for 2026. reinforceing the direct link between healthy Canadians, a resilient workforce, and long-term prosperity.
Balancing Uncertainty and Resilience: New Data on Sector Priorities and Pressures in 2026
Charity Insights Canada Project explore the priorities, outlook, and pressures shaping Canada’s charitable sector in 2026.
The Governance of Homeless Encampments in Canada
This paper outlines the legislative context of municipal encampment governance in Canada and examines key court decisions shaping how encampments are managed and critiques traditional responses such as removals, identifies barriers to improving strategies, and shows how rights-based approaches can lead to more dignified and efficient responses.
Do Homelessness Reporting Systems that Combine AI and Policing Produce Care or Criminalization?
The blog How Reporting Systems Create Tendencies Towards Care or Criminalization from Homeless Hub, examines a new AI-powered homelessness phone line being tested in Sarnia, Ontario, and questions whether a dual-purpose system run through the police can truly prioritize care.
Data Collection in Homeless Services (Homeless Learning Hub)
FREE, online, self-paced training designed specifically for people working in the homelessness sector. Enhancing data literacy and data collection skills for the homelessness sector
Action Urgently Needed - Contact Your MLA about FSCD and PDD
Inclusion Alberta expressed concerns that it has been three years since the Alberta government released data related to the Family Support for Children with Disabilities (FSCD) or Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD) programs, such as how many eligible children and adults have requested but are waiting for supports. With this absence of government data and in response to the growing number of individuals and families contacting us who are unable to secure the supports they require, Inclusion Alberta launched a survey in the fall of 2024 to hear their experiences.
Report: Current State: Critical & Urgent - Experiences with Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD)
This report from Inclusion Alberta (January 2025) presents the findings of a survey on experiences with the Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD) program.
Report: Too Little, Too Late - Experiences with Family Support for Children with Disabilities (FSCD)
This report from Inclusion Alberta (January 2025) presents survey research on experiences with the Family Supports for Children with Disabilities (FSCD) program.
ALIGN CONNECTIONS For Indigenous Children/Youth & Caregivers December 2025
CONNECTIONS is monthly newsletter designed to support Foster and Kinship Caregivers to ensure First Nations, Metis & Inuit children in their care have access to cultural resources, activities and events that broaden their cultural awareness.
Network & Know: Member Spotlight CARF Canada
Our Network & Know: Member Spotlight series introduces organizations you’ll want to know—not just for who they are, but for how they can support, collaborate, and grow with you. It’s all about building stronger relationships, sharing valuable resources, and celebrating the people who help make ALIGN thrive.
