Empowered Kids Ontario

09/01/2026

Member of the Month: Lansdowne Children's Centre🎉

Lansdowne Children’s Centre is a SmartStart Hub providing child development services for infants, children, and youth facing communication, developmental and physical needs and/or challenges, and their families.

Lansdowne currently operates sites in Brantford, Caledonia, Dunnville, and Simcoe to deliver safe, accessible and quality family-centred services in communities.

STAY TUNED: We are highlighting the incredible community-based organizations that are part of the EKO family. These teams are dedicated to their families and communities and, together, ensure that all kids in Ontario live their best lives.

08/31/2026

20 years of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities!
https://www.ohchr.org/en/treaty-bodies/crpd/20th-anniversary-crpd

In two decades of legal and policy gains that have led to over 90 percent of countries enacting laws guaranteeing the rights of persons with disabilities, alignment with the CRPD however, remains uneven.

The gap between commitments and lived realities remains one of the most pressing challenges for persons with disabilities.

The CRPD20 anniversary calls for strengthening monitoring and accountability mechanisms at the national, regional and international levels, ensuring that hard-won gains in legal frameworks, inclusive policies, and disability rights norms are not reversed but deepened and made durable.

Empowered Kids Ontario is committed to working to ensure kids and youth with disabilities and their families live their best lives.

08/28/2026

AMI will be at TIFF!

AMI, CBC, the Disability Screen Office and National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI) are pleased to announce The Creative Exchange. Taking place on Thursday, Sept. 10, at 3:15 p.m. at the CBC during TIFF, will be a panel discussion on AMI's exciting new drama series Adapting, with moderator Dave Brown, producers Big Time Decent, co-creators Rachael and Garner Ransom, Cara Nye and Em Williams.

A screening of the first episode of Adapting will take place before the panel. This is a great opportunity to learn more about Adapting, support AMI and its partners, and get into the TIFF spirit.

Follow the link for more details and to sign up: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-creative-exchange-tickets-1998434617738?aff=AMI

08/28/2026

NEO Kids Children's Treatment Centre launched Food Explorers this year!

The coaching clinic is for parents and caregivers of children 3 years and under with selective eating difficulties, and expands on the Centre's feeding services.

Food Explorers allows families up to four sessions with an Occupational Therapist for demonstration, teaching and coaching in selective eating strategies to address each family’s specific feeding goals for their child.

This new program also frees up some much needed resources to better support Neo Kids' feeding and swallowing clients.

08/26/2026

08/26/2026

08/26/2026

08/26/2026

EKO staff pick: Being Heumann

Catch the highly anticipated film at TIFF this September!

Being Heumann tells the remarkable true story of the woman who led a world-changing campaign for accessibility. Judy Heumann rallied a handful, then dozens, then hundreds of ordinary Americans with disabilities to push the US government to live up to its commitments.

Learn more about the film and screening times and locations with the link in the comments.

NOTE: All screenings will be presented with open captions. ASL interpreters and live captioning will be present for the live onstage components during the screenings on September 10.

08/25/2026

08/25/2026

Does your child have cerebral palsy? Are in-person clinic appointments proving to be inconvenient to attend? Join our research study that aims to make virtual assessments a reality for families to access essential rehabilitation services from the comfort of their own home. To learn more or sign up, please visit: https://bit.ly/3OuFJVn