As we enter March, I want to highlight that this month marks the end of our fiscal year at Grandview Kids. This is a time at Grandview Kids to focus on completing our initiatives from the previous year and begin planning for new ones. It also offers us an opportunity to pause and reflect on our significant growth and progress as an organization in the last year.

Since April 2024, we have remained steadfast in our work on significant projects for our organization. One of our key milestones was launching our 2024-27 Strategic Plan: Powering Potential. Three refreshed strategic directions ground the Strategic Plan:

1. Deliver meaningful, efficient client and caregiver outcomes and experiences
2. Foster a thriving, connected Team Grandview
3. Collaborate with partners to maximize impact, focusing on Durham Region

Powering Potential means inspiring ideas, embracing change, focusing on strengths, cultivating learning, advocating for action and providing tools and supports to overcome barriers. With each strategic direction supported by a series of actionable goals, I encourage you to review our 2024-27 Strategic Plan to deeply understand the directions informing Grandview Kids’ actions throughout the next few years.

I would be remiss if I did not mention Team Grandview and our greater community’s tireless efforts to open the doors of The Jerry Coughlan Building in the Fall of 2024. As we look ahead to the 2025-26 fiscal year, our new, state-of-the-art headquarters will enable Grandview Kids to serve 6,000 children and youth with communication, physical and developmental needs. Additionally, we will utilize this space to its full potential through expanding and enhancing existing services and introducing new ones to better meet the rapidly growing demand of the Durham Region community. In addition to our operations at The Jerry Coughlan Building, our satellite locations in Bowmanville (Bowmanville Health Centre), Port Perry (SA Cawker), Whitby (Abilities Centre) and Oshawa (Dwyer) will maintain steady service volumes. Grandview Kids’ operations at these satellite locations ensures high-quality care is accessible close to home for families across the Durham Region.

In this month’s jam-packed edition of Gather by Grandview, our Ambassador Advisor families and Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) Committee members honour the many holidays and dates of significance throughout March. Join us in recognizing National Epilepsy and Cerebral Palsy Awareness Months, as well as International Wheelchair Day and National Trisomy 18 Awareness Day through the moving stories shared by Grandview Kids clients, parents and caregivers.

We also take a closer look at our Dietetics Program this month as March marks National Nutrition Month in Canada. Grandview Kids’ Registered Dietitians and Research and Innovation team, in collaboration with our partners at the Hospital for Sick Children, were successfully awarded a grant to advance our research in dietetics. This exciting development underscores Grandview Kids’ deep commitment to advancing research as an active supporter and collaborator in disability studies and rehabilitation sciences.

Finally, we share all the details surrounding our emerging partnership with Sloane’s House, which was formalized early in February through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU signifies our organizations’ joint objective to support children and youth with complex medical needs and their families in accessing much-needed respite programming and specialized training opportunities focused on grief and bereavement supports. Grandview Kids looks forward to expanding this partnership throughout the next fiscal year.

Sincerely,

Tom McHugh

CEO, Grandview Kids

National Epilepsy

Awareness Month

March is National Epilepsy Awareness Month in Canada, and Grandview Kids hopes to encourage people to acknowledge and understand the disorder and support the dismantling of misconceptions, discrimination and isolation facing those who live with epilepsy.

Visit our blog to read about Grandview Kid, Kiara's story >

Celebrating Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month!

During the month of March, we celebrate National Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month to recognize and support the many individuals who live with Cerebral Palsy (CP). CP is a permanent physical disability impacting a person’s mobility and muscle strength.

Visit our blog to read as Grandview Kids families share their experiences of living with a loved one with CP >

March 1: International

Wheelchair Day

International Wheelchair Day takes place around the world annually on March 1. On this day, people celebrate the positive impact that wheelchairs have had on their lives. International Wheelchair Day raises awareness about how people who use wheelchairs move through and involve themselves in their communities.

Visit our blog to read about Grandview graduate, Justine's story >

March 18: National Trisomy 18 Awareness Day

Edwards syndrome, also known as Trisomy 18, is a genetic condition that affects how a child’s body develops and grows. Having three copies of chromosome 18 instead of the typical two causes Edwards Syndrome (Trisomy 18). It occurs in an estimated one out of every 5,000 to 6,000 live births.

Visit our blog to read about Grandview Kid, Jamilah's journey >

Upcoming programs, workshops and events

Family Engagement

Totally Into It: Hobby & Collection Night

Do you have a cool collection or a favourite hobby? Whether it’s trading cards, art, LEGO, cosplay, or something totally unique, we want to hear about it! 

Join us on Tuesday, March 18 from 6 to 8 p.m. for an interactive evening where you can share your interests with peers, ask questions and discover new hobbies. This is a great chance to connect with others, spark new friendships and celebrate what makes you passionate. Everyone is welcome, whether you're sharing or just exploring! Hosted by the Adolescent Transition Program, this event is all about building connections through shared interests for youth ages 15 to 21. Support workers are welcome to attend with participants. 

Date: Tuesday, March 18, 2025  

Time: 6 to 8 p.m.  

Location: Grandview Kids - The Jerry Coughlan Building, 1461 Harwood Avenue North, Ajax, ON L1T 0R3 

Click here to register! Registration is required. 

March Caregiver Café – 80s, 90s and 00s throwback night

Take a break from the daily grind and rewind to the most iconic decades of all time! Whether you rocked neon leg warmers, grunge flannels, or low-rise jeans, this is your chance to relive the best music, fashion and pop culture moments from the 80s, 90s and 2000s. Because before we were scheduling IEP meetings and advocating like pros, we were recording mixtapes, hanging at the mall and battling our siblings for the TV remote! 

What to expect: 

• Dress the part (optional!) – Choose your decade. Dressing up is optional but highly encouraged for extra fun! 
• Decade-battle playlist – 80s synth-pop, 90s boy bands, 2000s pop-punk—which era had the best bangers? 
• Throwback snacks and drinks – Munch on 80s Pop Rocks, 90s Dunkaroos & Lunchables, and 2000s Mountain Dew & Fruit Roll-Ups. 
• Rewind and reminisce – Share your funniest, cringiest or most iconic memories from each era. Bonus points for embarrassing MSN, AIM or MySpace screen names! 
• Bonus activity 
• Kahoot trivia contests 

Date: Thursday, March 27, 2025  

Time: 6 to 8 p.m. 

Location: Grandview Kids - The Jerry Coughlan Building, 1461 Harwood Avenue North, Ajax, ON L1T 0R3 

Click here to register!

Autism Family Gym Drop-in 

Join us for a relaxed, judgment-free gym session where autistic children and their families can move, play and connect in a welcoming space. 

Date: Saturday, March 15, 2025  

Time: 2 to 3 p.m. 

Location: Grandview Kids - The Jerry Coughlan Building, 1461 Harwood Avenue North, Ajax, ON L1T 0R3 

Note: This is a pilot event hosted by the Family Engagement Team, and we hope to make it a monthly gathering based on family feedback. Registration is recommended to help us plan. 

Click here to register! For more information, please contact familyengagement@grandviewkids.ca. 

Paperwork Party 

Join us for an in-person walk-through of the Assistance for Children with Severe Disabilities (ACSD) application. This application is submitted online, so you will need to use a laptop/tablet or cellphone with internet access to participate and connect to Grandview Kids internet.



Date: Wednesday, March 5, 2025  

Time: Noon to 1 p.m. 

Location: Room 1003 at Grandview Kids - The Jerry Coughlan Building, 1461 Harwood Avenue North, Ajax, ON L1T 0R3 

Click here to register! 

Autism Caregiver New Diagnosis Virtual Call 

Join members of the Family Engagement Team for a relaxed, caregiver-led information session and Q&A on all things autism. This is a judgment-free space to ask questions, share experiences and connect with others on a similar journey. Learn about shared resources, funding options, community supports and next steps to help you navigate this new diagnosis with confidence.  

Notes: 

• This event is not clinician-led; it is just an opportunity to engage with caregivers who’ve been there.
• This is a pilot event hosted by the Family Engagement Team, and we hope to make it a monthly gathering based on family feedback.

Date: Thursday, March 6, 2025  

Time (two options): 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 6:30 to 8 p.m. 

Location: Virtual webinar via Microsoft Teams

Click here to register for the morning session and here for the evening session! Registration is required. 

For more information, please contact kristen.mckinnon@grandviewkids.ca.  

Tuesday Morning Autism Caregiver Tea and Talk

Join us for a relaxed and welcoming Tuesday morning teatime, where caregivers of autistic children can come together to share experiences, ask questions and build connections. This is a space to unwind, chat and support each other—whether you're new to the journey or have years of experience navigating services, schools and everyday life. 

What to expect: 

• A warm, judgment-free environment 
• Meaningful conversations with other caregivers 
• A chance to share resources and tips (and, of course, tea!) 
• Other yummy treats, which can be found at the Grandview Kids Café 

Date: Tuesday, March 4 and Tuesday, March 11

Time: 10 a.m. to noon

Location: Grandview Kids - The Jerry Coughlan Building, 1461 Harwood Avenue North, Ajax, ON L1T 0R3

No RSVP is needed—just drop in. Whether you stay the whole time or just pop by for a quick cup, we'd love to see you! Let's take a moment for ourselves while building a stronger, more connected community.  

Program Spotlight: Dietetics at Grandview Kids

March is Nutrition Month in Canada. Recently, Grandview Kids, alongside our partners at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), were successfully awarded a grant called the "Norman Saunders Complex Care Initiative" to enhance our research in dietetics. The research endeavour is a partnership led by Dr. Julie Johnstone of SickKids, partnering with the Grandview Kids and SickKids dietetics teams. This month, we invite you to learn more about our application for the grant and the exciting new research our Registered Dietitians and Research and Innovation team will engage in.

Grandview Kids engages in new nutrition research to improve care for children with medical complexity

The Norman Saunders Complex Care Initiative supports innovative, interdisciplinary research related to the clinical care of children with medical complexity (CMC). The grant competition is an opportunity for complex care teams across Canada to apply by submitting their proposed research study ideas. In a partnership led by Dr. Julie Johnstone of SickKids, partnering with the Grandview Kids and SickKids dietetics teams, the Grandview Kids Complex Care team was successfully awarded the grant to conduct a research study exploring how we can use Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) to improve our ability to monitor and identify the risk of malnutrition for CMC. 

An image depicting the use of an MUAC

(source: ProConnect).

CMC are at higher risk of malnutrition and require close monitoring by their Registered Dietitian and Complex Care team to conduct nutrition assessments and monitor growth. However, CMC may experience barriers to nutrition monitoring if there is no wheelchair scale available or if scoliosis, contractures or inability to stand impacts our ability to measure height. The MUAC is a simple, non-invasive and inexpensive tool used to identify the risk of malnutrition and would not be impacted by these barriers. Until further research is conducted, it is unknown if MUAC can effectively identify malnutrition in CMC. The findings of this study will help propel further research for the use of MUAC in CMC and could lead to improved accessibility in nutrition care for complex care clients.

About the Durham Region Complex Care Program 

The Durham Region Complex Care Program supports children and youth with complex medical needs, closer to home. This program is delivered in partnership between SickKids, Grandview Kids, Lakeridge Health and the Central East Home and Community Care Support Services.

Since its launch in May 2021, the Complex Care Program has provided care to more than 60 children and youth with complex medical needs living in the Durham Region.

Click here to learn more about the program > 

Partner Spotlight: Celebrating Grandview Kids and Sloane’s House’s emerging partnership

At the beginning of February, emerging community partners Grandview Kids and Sloane’s House celebrated their shared commitment to providing family-centred care to children and youth with communication, physical and developmental needs in Durham Region through a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). 

Representatives from Grandview Kids and Sloane’s House at the MOU signing event.



From left to right: Erin Watson, Vice-Chair, Grandview Kids Board of Directors; Neil Pasher, Founder/Board Member, Sloane's House; Tom McHugh, CEO, Grandview Kids; Brenda Slomka, Executive Director, Sloane's House; Jason Hunt, Chair, Sloane's House Board of Directors 

Signed during a ceremony on February 4, 2025, the MOU outlines the shared objective of Grandview Kids and Sloane’s House to support children and youth with complex medical needs, along with their families, in accessing much-needed respite programming and specialized training opportunities focused on grief and bereavement supports. The MOU will enable the development of programs through the counsel of clients, caregivers and Grandview Kids staff, provide resources for families navigating the various stages of grief, facilitate therapy opportunities and events and enhance access to services dedicated to children and youth with complex medical needs and their families. 

Through the generous support of donors, Sloane’s House plans to build a dedicated paediatric respite and hospice care centre in Whitby, Ontario. The agreement enables Sloane’s House staff to utilize Grandview Kids’ physical spaces to host meetings and events as they plan their next steps to fund and build a dedicated centre. 

The MOU signifies both organizations’ shared commitment to increasing the availability of support for parents and caregivers and their children with high health needs. This partnership also recognizes the importance of providing respite services and grief and bereavement support to parents and caregivers who deliver care with limited access to programming and resources tailored to their needs.



Read the media release announcing the emerging partnership to learn more >

Using research in care

Grandview Kids is proud to announce that our staff are participating in the "F-Words for Child Development" training program. In 2011, Dr. Rosenbaum and Dr. Gorter published a paper titled "The 'F-Words' in Childhood Disability: I swear this is how we should think!". The paper shows six words starting with the letter "F." The researchers share that these six words should be what clinicians focus on when providing care to children with neurodiverse needs. The six words are: Functioning, Family, Fitness, Fun, Friends and Future. Since the creation of the F-Words for Child Development, there has been flourishing interest and uptake worldwide.

The framework moves us from a medical model of “fixing” kids to a strength-based approach that promotes health and development using all aspects of a child’s life. This change in focus encourages us to look at a child’s strengths by thinking about the things our children CAN do.

Curious to learn more?  

The F-Words underpin the approach used in our work at Grandview Kids and across all Children’s Treatment Centres. CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research offers the F-Words Foundation Course here. It is a free, five-module, self-paced online training course designed for families, health care providers, managers, community service providers and educators who support children and youth of all abilities.

References: Rosenbaum, P., & Gorter, J. W. (2012). The 'F-Words' in childhood disability: I swear this is how we should think!. Child: care, health and development, 38(4), 457–463. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2214.2011.01338.x 

Community Corner

Ajax Public Library

The Ajax Public Library invites you to attend the following events in March:

Storytimes 

• Sensory Storytime: Ages 2-6; drop in at the Grandview Kids Express Branch on Thursday, March 27 at 10 a.m. 
• Family Storytime: Ages 3-12; drop in at the Grandview Kids Express Branch on Saturday, March 1, from 10 a.m. to noon
• 1000 Colourful Stories: Ages 0-4; drop in at the Audley Branch on Saturday, March 22, from 10:30 a.m. to noon

Parents 

• Parent Café – Supporting children through grief: Adults; Wednesday, March 5, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Main Branch (delivered in partnership with VON Durham Hospice Services) 

Families 

Seed Saturday: Saturday, March 22, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.:

• Seed Storytime & Scavenger Hunt drop-in for families from 10 to 11 a.m. 
• Seed Exchange & Gardening Advice Tables for adults from noon to 2 p.m. 

Specials 

Mysterious March Break! Friday, March 7 to Sunday, March 16 

• Track down clues, solve puzzles and explore detective-worthy gadgets and science during our mystery-filled March Break. Check www.ajaxlibrary.ca/MarchBreak for more details! 
• Saturday Morning Movie (The LEGO Movie): All ages; drop in at the Grandview Kids Express Branch from 10 a.m. to noon.

Please be advised that the Ajax Public Library (excluding the Grandview Kids Express Branch) has new Sunday hours. Visit the Ajax Public Library website for more information > 

Pickering Public Library 

Learn more about program offerings from our community partner, the Pickering Public Library! If you have any questions about the offerings shared below, please contact your local Pickering Public Library branch. 

The Pickering Public Library invites you to attend the following events in March: 

Neurodivergent Storytime (two dates): Thursday, March 20 and March 27, from 10 to 10:45 a.m., at the Pickering Public Library – Central Branch

• This storytime takes place in a quiet and safe environment. It includes interactive stories, songs, action-rhymes, fingerplays and sensory activities that promote literacy skills and development. This storytime is ideal for children with sensory processing sensitivities and those on the Autism spectrum. 

Neurodivergent Drop-in: Sunday, March 9, from 11 a.m. to noon at the George Ashe Library’s Quiet Study Room 

• The library will host a unique event catering to families with children who identify as being neurodivergent to come and experience the library before regular operating hours. Children will have the opportunity to interact socially with each other in a safe and welcoming space. 
• This is a great opportunity for families to engage in play-based learning, explore the Library's resources and collection in a quiet, low-lighting environment and connect with other parents and caregivers. 

Dates of significance

Every month, members of Team Grandview’s Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) Committee research and share blog posts about holidays, cultural celebrations, awareness days and other dates of significance that are meaningful to staff, clients, caregivers, partners and the community. 

In March, we acknowledge Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month, World Teen Mental Wellness Day, World Birth Defects Day, World Hearing Day, World Lymphedema Day, International Women's Day, World Social Work Day, National Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day, Purple Shirt Day and the Transgender Day of Visibility. Read more on our blog > 

We also acknowledge many holidays and celebrations this month, including Holi, St. Patrick's Day, St. Joseph's Day and Eid al-Fitr. Read more on our blog > 

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Content in Gather is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult your doctor. Views expressed in posts and resources listed do not signify endorsement by Grandview Kids.