Community Action for Prenatal and Child Health Program
The Community Action for Prenatal and Child Health Program (CAPCHP) provides funding to community groups to promote the health of pregnant people, infants and young children (ages 0–6) and their parents or caregivers.
The program aims to support families facing the greatest health equity barriers in their communities. This may include families who are:
- living in poverty;
- socially or geographically isolated;
- experiencing teen pregnancy, substance use, or family violence; and/or
- facing systemic barriers (e.g., Indigenous families, racialized communities, newcomers, gender-diverse families).
CAPCHP brings together the Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program and the Community Action Program for Children into one unified program. Through these initiatives, the Public Health Agency of Canada funds approximately 495 projects serving over 230,000 pregnant people, young children (age 0-6) and their parents/caregivers across Canada each year.
Note: Projects in the province of Quebec are funded under the separate CAPC and CPNP programs until March 31, 2028.
Goals of the Community Action for Prenatal and Child Health Program
CAPCHP aims to promote the health and wellbeing of pregnant women and people, infants, young children (ages 0–6) and their parents and caregivers who face barriers to health equity by:
- Building community capacity
- Strengthening partnerships and collaboration across sectors
- Developing and sharing knowledge and resources.
Types of support
CAPCHP funds projects in two areas:
- Prenatal and postnatal health
- To promote healthy pregnancies, positive birth outcomes, and the health of babies and their parents.
- Parenting and child health
- To encourage positive parenting, strong parent-child relationships, and healthy habits like good nutrition, child safety and physical activity.
CAPCHP projects adapt their activities to meet the needs of their communities. Examples of programming may include:
- Prenatal and postnatal drop-in groups
- Counselling in prenatal health and lifestyle
- Breastfeeding support
- Prenatal nutrition support
- Collective kitchens and healthy cooking groups
- Parenting classes and drop-in groups
- Child health and development activities
- Outreach and home visiting programs
- Referrals to other agencies and services
Funding
All funding for CAPCHP projects is currently committed.
Open Funding Opportunities will be posted as they become available.
Other programs you might be interested in
- Healthy Early Years Program for Official Language Minority Communities
- Aboriginal Head Start in Urban and Rural Communities
- Nobody's Perfect Parenting Program