This past year tested our resilience, bringing both defining triumphs along with hurdles as well. With the benefits of previous government investment having eroded after periods of stagnant funding and the demand for developmental healthcare far outpacing supply, the sector is under significant pressure to meet the needs of Ontario families. While a two percent base budget increase was welcomed, we know this increase will not be sufficient to meet the continually growing and often more complex demand for clinical care, and that wait times will continue to multiply.
We are focused on EKO's North Star: EKO members have the resources necessary to meet the needs of their communities. This requires a financially stable sector provided by the leading-edge pediatric expertise of Ontario allied health professionals. As we look to this next year, our priority is clear: expanding access to the clinical care and programs that can change the trajectory of kids' and families' lives.
Thank you for your continued trust in our association and our team.
Sincerely,
Kevin J. Collins
Chair
Jennifer Churchill
President & CEO
Strategic Priority: Evolve
Bringing Innovative Technology to Communities Across Ontario
EKO and EKO member Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital are partners advancing Brain Computer Interface (BCI)—one of the boldest emerging sciences. Thanks to the generous support of The Slaight Family Foundation, we're adding this new tool to the developmental healthcare clinical toolbox, giving more kids and families access to the latest technology that enables recreation for kids limited by physical barriers.
Children living with conditions that significantly limit their ability to move can experience severe limitations in their mobility and capacity to communicate. Not having tools to communicate and interact with their environments can greatly impact their well-being and ability to achieve their full potential, leaving them feeling isolated, disconnected from those around them, and marginalized.
We're introducing clinicians, kids and families to BCI technologies developed at the hospital, that support users to power technology with their brain activity, recognizing changes in thought patterns via a non-invasive electroencephalogram (EEG) and transmitting those signals to control devices like computers, phones, TV remotes and more. Participants are empowered by BCI skill development and recreation activities like painting, playing music and video games and driving a race car around a track—using only their brain waves.
To Date:
0
EKO members have received training, equipment, and software to bring this clinical innovation to their communities.
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EKO members have secured their spots for 2027 and 2028.
A toolkit of 20 resources created by Holland Bloorview and EKO helps members tell the BCI story in their communities.
Who else is telling the story? Check out the December 2025 issue of the Ontario Hospital Association's online magazine Health System News.
Growing EKO Membership
Two new General Members joined EKO this year, representing more than 5% growth and affirming EKO's strategic leadership within the broader developmental health and children's services ecosystem.
Digital EKO
Total views across all public and EKO Members’ Portal pages:
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Unique users increased 120%Average time on site: 1 minute 21 seconds431,527 events—scrolls, clicks, downloads, forms, video plays, and searches
Social EKO: audience grew 21% across all channels, including:
LinkedIn 26%
Bluesky 55%
Instagram 19%
X -1% (compared to 23% across North American users)
Overall post impressions increased 5% to more than 211K
Posted video views increased by 45% to 12,000 across all platforms (including 102% on LinkedIn)
Posts were clicked 18% more than in the previous year
EKO Members’ Portal:
39,856 sessions
175,311 views
72% of users scroll to read more on the page
Users stay an average of 4 minutes and 45 seconds
EKO’s Member of the Month campaign:
Increased number of posts for each member by 55%
Impressions increased 24% to 35,700
20% increase in engagement with EKO content
EKO Scholars campaign:
9% engagement across all platforms (10% on LinkedIn and Facebook)
2026 EKO Scholarship Call for Applications generated more than 13,000 impressions
ConGRADulations campaign:
Congratulating EKO Scholars who complete their post-secondary programs
Increased impressions by 88% to 16,000
Engagements increased by 300%
Post link clicks increased by 200%
Strategic Priority: Activate
Our Health Human Resource Landscape
To better understand the Health Human Resource landscape, EKO conducted its inaugural Workforce Survey to examine workforce and staffing pressures across our membership. Across regions and professions, organizations are experiencing challenges related to staffing shortages, recruitment, and retention, with impacts more pronounced in certain areas of the province.
In parallel, EKO commissioned a Workforce Supply Scan to examine the education and training landscape, as well as the broader workforce supply in Ontario. The findings clearly indicate a workforce constrained by training capacity, as the education pipeline is narrow and highly competitive. Regional disparities in training availability contribute to geographic disparities in workforce availability.
The survey and supply scan provide a starting point along with an evidence base for collaborative planning between service providers, government partners, and educational institutions to begin to address workforce pressures facing the sector and EKO members.
Ontario Grants EKO Funding to Transform and Integrate Sector-wide Data
Since early 2024, EKO has been working with the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services to develop and test the proof of value for a centralized data integration solution that will automate data collection from agency Client Information Systems into a ministry-managed data warehouse. The result is a shared approach to seeing the same data picture across agencies funded directly by the Ministry, while allowing each organization to keep its own systems and ways of working.
EKO received Ministry funding to lead the four-year implementation of this significant provincial modernization initiative, transforming data collection, integration and reporting by more than 40 organizations across the sector. This provincial initiative will combine anonymous data from organizations to create consistent measures of service access and demand, wait times, and system capacity. These insights will help the sector show its impact, identify emerging challenges, and support discussions with government about funding, capacity, and future planning.
EKO to Deliver Sector-wide Training in Social Emotional Development
Thirty per cent of Ontario children—40,000 each year—enter kindergarten with at least one developmental vulnerability. Quantitative research shows that children with disabilities face a significantly higher risk for lower levels of social and emotional well-being compared to typically developing peers.1,2 To create a stronger foundation for addressing social-emotional needs in developmental healthcare settings, EKO will be providing focused professional training to 57 Ontario agencies.
With funding from the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, EKO is working with The Hospital for Sick Children's Infant and Early Mental Health Promotion Program. Training is designed to increase clinician confidence and competence, strengthen workforce retention efforts, improve the care experience for kids and families, promote health equity, and build sector capacity.
1 The Impact of Inclusive Education on the Social and Emotional Development of Children; International Journal on Integrated Education, 2025
2 Social and Emotional Well-Being of Children and Youth with Disabilities: A Brief Overview, Impact, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, 2011
Partners Improving Children's Experiences and Outcomes of Care
Children's HealthCare Canada is leading the creation of a pan-Canadian blueprint to improve children's experiences and outcomes of healthcare and has invited EKO as a key informant to assist in defining the scope, process and data needed to create a detailed strategy for policy makers. This opportunity reinforces developmental health as foundational to lifelong health and an essential consideration for all child health policy.
Learning
Over the course of the year EKO provides exclusive learning opportunities for members:
Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder
EKO welcomed Board Director and Holland Bloorview Developmental Pediatrician Dr. Rageen Rajendram and Speech Pathologist Rebecca Perlin from the Holland Bloorview's Restrictive Eating Clinic to speak with almost 200 clinicians and managers about Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder and their clinic's multi-disciplinary treatment approach for neurodivergent children.
Design for Delight
Our physical workspace matters—our space can build trust, make sure kids and families feel welcome, keep us focused, foster inclusion, and have employees feeling valued and happy to belong. The décor and layout tell each agency's story better than words alone. Montgomery Sisam Architects together with Children's Treatment Centre Chatham-Kent CEO Donna Litwin-Makey, explored how we can create healing environments with 26 members of EKO's Leadership Council and their staff.
Mastering the Message
EKO brought together EKO leaders and board directors from member agencies for training in how to communicate clearly when the stakes are high. The full-day program addressed how to: keep the message clear and consistent, even when people push back; explain complex issues in plain language; and close conversations with clear next steps.
Creating Better Services Together: The Impact of Co-Design
This one-hour webinar in partnership with Janeen Halliwell and Dan Bigonesse from People Minded Business explored how co-design approaches deepen partnerships with families and clients, strengthen engagement practices across the province, and highlight why family engagement is such an essential part of meaningful service delivery.
Strategic Priority: Elevate
Leadershift 2026
EKO Leadershift 2026 once again brought together EKO member leaders and presented new perspectives to drive forward thinking, collaboration, and impact. An exemplary cross-disciplinary panel of leaders, moderated by former Ministry of Education Deputy Minister Veronica Lacey, C.M., addressed the perfect storm brewing as wait lists could double in just three years, leaving more kids, families and communities struggling without support for sector growth to meet what is now an unprecedented demand for access to the clinical care that can change the trajectory of a child's lifelong health, wellness, and success. The panel explored issues facing the developmental health sector through three distinct and interconnected lenses: the challenges of today's geopolitical environment and opportunities for children's healthcare and specifically for developmental healthcare in the years ahead.
Right-Sizing Children's Healthcare: the Critical Role of Community-based Developmental HealthCare
Jennifer Churchill and EKO member Pathways Health Centre for Children's CEO Alison Morrison joined Pediatrician and former president of both the Yukon and Canadian Medical Associations Dr. Katharine Smart on Children's Healthcare Canada SPARK podcast focused on right-sizing children's healthcare in Canada. Their robust discussion described the vital role of community-based developmental healthcare—delivered by specialized allied health professionals and developmental pediatricians at critical moments in a child's development—and how to integrate developmental health, acute, ambulatory, mental health, and well-being—into an updated system for cooperation and collaboration.
2026 EKO Scholarship Program
The EKO Scholarship program is on track to have provided support to 100 scholars by the association's 50th anniversary in 2028. The program has evolved through outreach to elected officials, continuing engagement with scholars, increased investment by donors, and by engaging storytelling that elevate both the EKO Scholarship Program and EKO's reputation.
This year EKO offered applicants the opportunity to connect with an education professional serving as an independent coach, available to speak with applicants, provide guidance, and answer questions. The Board has also charged a committee of Board directors and volunteers chaired by EKO Director Charmaine Sheahan, with recommending the 2026 slate of scholars. We thank our incredible committee members for their insights and engagement throughout the scholarship awards season.
Meet the 2026 EKO Scholars
Photos, names and schools to come — placeholders shown below.
Catherine Derouard
McGill University
2026 EKO Indigenous Scholar
Hayden Tange
Trent University
Chelsea Kulawic
Brock University
Jocelyne Hewitson
Laurentian University
Liam Pickells
Conestoga College
Chipp White
Seneca Polytechnic
Ciara Pelletier Lebouef
Cambrian College
Kara Doherty
Loyalist College
EKO in the Community
EKO at the Dolly Parton Imagination Library Book Selection Committee
Again this year EKO’s representative participated in the selection process for the American and Canadian book collections of the late (great) Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, Ms. Parton’s signature early literacy charity that delivers books each month, free of charge, to young children from birth to their fifth birthday. Being read to by a parent or caregiver is a powerful early development activity, accelerating language acquisition, building foundational pre-literacy skills, boosting cognitive development, and strengthening the bond between a young child and their parent/caregiver.
This initiative operates in most provinces and territories, with the largest share of books delivered in Alberta and Ontario.
Gen(Z)AI, Canada’s first national youth assembly on artificial intelligence
EKO joined the private culminating event of Gen(Z)AI, Canada’s first national youth assembly on artificial intelligence. The event followed eight months of cross-country deliberations with young Canadians aged 17–23 addressing some of the most urgent AI governance challenges of our time: AI chatbots, information integrity, data privacy, and age assurance. They heard from experts, debated trade-offs, and worked toward consensus-based policy recommendations. These recommendations were then shared with, commented on, and amended by thousands of other youths across the country, to create a youth-led policy framework for AI.
Sponsored and co-hosted by Senator Rosemary Moodie, the youth participants presented their framework directly to Members of Parliament, Senators, policymakers, and civil society leaders.
2026 EKO Tribute Awards
EKO's Tribute Awards recognize individuals, teams, and organizations across Ontario that have made outstanding contributions that change the game for kids with disabilities and developmental needs. Recipients include exemplary leaders, distinctive partnerships, and those who champion transformative initiatives. We celebrate paradigm-shifting professionals and volunteers, and emerging leaders whose records reflect ongoing exceptional contributions to developmental health and a growing sphere of impact.
The Tribute Awards are EKO's oldest and most prestigious means of thanking those who set unprecedented new standards so kids with disabilities and developmental needs and their families live their best lives.
Award of Excellence
Dr. Robin Williams
Through innovation, advocacy, compassion, tireless public service, and commitment to her calling: “helping kids and their families live happily and healthily”, Dr. Williams has improved the lives of countless children and families while shaping systems that will continue to benefit future generations to come.
Dr. Ronald Garth Smith
“It seems strange to be receiving the EKO Tribute Award for Excellence when I feel it has been the amazing teams that I have been honoured to work with over the past 30+ years that have helped through their encouragement and support achieve what I have achieved.”
Leadership
CBC Kids/CBC Content Accessibility
“I think as a team leader, watching my amazing senior producers and producers take on these projects not only come up with the creative ideas, but also the solutions to making the content inclusive and accessible and really seeing it, it’s such a benefit for the learnings that the team receives. It’s like the best learning we can do. I’m just amazed. They’re the ones like that this award is highlighting.”
— Marie McCann, Senior Director, CBC Kids
Dr. Peter Rumney
“Relationships are the single most critical factor for health, happiness and community inclusion—for the kids and parents we treat, and for ourselves, too. It’s about being recognized, valued, and connected to the people inside our community. Receiving the EKO Tribute Award is recognition by my community, and that is an exceptional honour.”
Dr. Patty Douglas
“Story brings us together as human beings. When you can witness what it means to be a mom or to be a young autistic person or to be a teacher, it builds empathy and connection rather than divisiveness. And it’s very powerful.”
Advocacy
Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital Youth Advisory Council
“I stand on the shoulders of giants and those that have come before me have paved the way for me to be able to do this work and for me to be able to do this advocacy effectively and to learn how to be a good leader. I will always, always be grateful for opportunities like this one where I get to talk about the work that we do.”
— Zoe Gargouzi, Chair, Holland Bloorview Youth Advisory Council
Partnership
Nadia Hamilton – Magnusmode
As a young entrepreneur, her advice to others comes from her life-long love of chess, where you must look five, even ten steps ahead. “The only distinction,” Nadia says, “is the importance of collaboration.”
Financial Performance
Full audited financial statements are available from Empowered Kids Ontario on request.
Revenue and expenses are presented by restricted and unrestricted funds for 2025/26, with 2024/25 comparative figures.
