Summary
ALIGN Association of Community Services is a community of agencies representing the diverse needs of Alberta's children and families by sharing information, experiences, and research.
PolicyWise for Children & Families partnered with ALIGN to develop a framework and toolkit for the ALIGN Wellness Initiative. The goals of the initiative are to support children and family serving agencies to assess child, youth, and caregiver well-being and share the impacts of their work.
The initiative resulted in the Measureing Well-Being Framework and associated Toolkit featuring resources, videos, an Impact Portal and Dashboard, and a Community of Practice to support culturally responsive and inclusive child and youth well-being practice and assessment.
Policy & Practice Implications
- Children and family service agencies can apply the Framework’s culturally responsive and inclusive approach to assess children, youth, caregivers, and staff well-being across seven domains.
- The Toolkit’s 422 well-being indicators collected from youth, Indigenous and diverse practitioners, Elders and Knowledge Keepers, and existing assessments can be used by organizations to guide their program and client evaluations.
- The Toolkit's videos can support staff understanding of Indigenous cultural perspectives and experiences of newcomer youth.
- Policy makers can support Indigenous knowledges and practices by embracing the value of Indigenous ways of observing, assessing, and sharing impact.
- Centering the voices of youth and caregivers with lived experiences in assessment practices can build trusting relationships while collecting and learning from meaningful testimonials of impact.