Because child care was not available, I didn’t get to go to all my appointments because you can’t take a child into an HIV clinic...Once I got child care, it helped me so much to a point where my health has gotten a little better from it…If I didn’t have [child care], I would not have even been able to have my medical treatment.
-Alice, Justice at Work report
The Centre for Family Equity approaches health equity through the lens of the social determinants of health. The social determinants of health include employment and working conditions, education, childhood experiences, physical environments, social supports and health services, and gender and identity.
This means recognizing that poverty, discrimination, and systemic barriers directly impact the physical and mental well-being of families and their long-term health outcomes. We work to ensure that all children, youth, parents, and caregivers—especially those facing structural marginalization—have safe, equitable access to the systems and resources that support long-term health and healing.
Our Mental Health Matters initiative highlights the challenges faced by low-income parents and caregivers facing mental health issues, many of whom are survivors of gender-based and family violence, who cannot access expensive market-based counselling support. Mental Health Matters advocates for the inclusion of counselling as a fully MSP-billable service within BC’s health care system, with a minimum of 24 hours of counselling per year, per person, for low-income individuals and more funding for mental health services for family violence survivors.
Our Healing Forward program is a six-month two-part online group mental health support program open to qualifying parents and caregivers anywhere in BC. Healing Forward is facilitated by registered clinical counsellors (RCCs) and experienced peer support facilitators. The program is designed to help low-income parents and caregivers experiencing mental health care access barriers who are currently accessing BC’s family law system to heal, rebuild, and connect after experiencing violence and separation.
Make counselling a fully MSP-billable service within BC’s public health care system and provide a minimum of 24 hours of counselling per year, per person, for low-income individuals.
Ensure that employers provide all full and part-time workers with extended health benefits.
Invest in upgrades and renovations to ensure BC’s aging affordable housing stock is safe, healthy and secure with adequate insulation and zero mold and pests.
Implement a Children’s Right to Move Provincial Framework to ensure all children—regardless of income—have non-stigmatizing access to physical activity and recreation programs critical for development, inclusion, and lifelong health outcomes.
We are launching our research brief focused on low-income youth and access to transportation.
We hope you can join us for the third in a series of online training sessions in our Decolonizing Workshop Series.
The Centre for Family Equity is launching our research brief Mobility at a Cost: Barriers to Transportation Access for Low-Income Rural and Urban Youth in BC and Pathways to Equity.
Our November 2025 joint letter with Disability Alliance BC and BC Poverty Reduction Coalition to fully remove the spousal cap for people receiving disability assistance
Our follow-up letter to the Minister of Education and Child Care.
