Connecting Families to the Community
The City of Windsor is the Consolidated Municipal Service Manager (CMSM) for Children’s Services in Windsor and Essex County. CMSMs are the designated child care and early years service system managers responsible for planning and managing licensed child care services and EarlyON Child and Family Centres in their communities, ensuring an increasingly integrated, high-quality child care and early years system that is governed and funded by the Ministry of Education. We are committed to supporting and connecting children and families through linkages to resources and programs available in our community.
Prenatal and Infant
Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU): WECHU provides information about pregnancy and parenting, including prenatal classes, breastfeeding support, and more.
Best Start: Are you a new or future parent looking for information? Click here to view the bilingual Best Start information package.
Feeding Your Baby: This guide for parents provides information about feeding their baby from six months to one year. It has information and answers to questions they may have about breastfeeding and starting solid foods.
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD): Visit FASD Ontario's website for more information about FASD, its cause, signs and symptoms, health effects, prevention, support and information for professionals in your area.
Toddler and Preschool
WECHU provides various parenting resources, including information about nutrition and immunization:
- How to Build a Healthy Toddler
- How to Build a Healthy Preschooler
- Ontario's Routine Immunization Schedule
Additional Links:
- Preschool Speech and Language Program
- Learning to Play and Playing to Learn
- Daddy and Me on the Move
- Building Resilience in Young Children
- When Children Speak More than One Language
- Have a Ball Together
Kindergarten
Windsor-Essex School Boards:
- Greater Essex Country District School Board
- Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board
- Conseil scolaire (CS) Viamonde
- Conseil scolaire catholique (CSC) Providence
School Age
Triple P Positive Parenting Program: This program offers information, support and practical answers to everyday parenting concerns. It's an approach that's easy to follow, and you'll see that even small changes can make a big difference to your family. Programming available for ages 0 to 16 years.
Learning Disabilities Association of Windsor-Essex County: Assisting children, youth, and adults with learning disabilities, and those who support them, through information sharing, support, and relevant programs.
Youth (Age 12 and up)
Windsor Essex Community Health Centre, Teen Health provides free and confidential services for youth 12 to 24 years of age. There are no geographical boundaries to accessing our free services.
The Referral Matrix: The referral matrix is a tool designed by Access County Community Support Services to help youth, parents, educators and advocates locate resources to assist youth in crisis across Essex County.
Additional Resources:
WE Connect Kids: WE Connect Kids is available to enhance awareness and access to mental health and addiction services for children, youth and their families, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare (HDGH), together with its partners, has introduced a new program to help children, youth and their families connect with local mental health and addictions services that best meet their needs.