Success By 6 is a collaborative community initiative, made up of partners from the public, private and non-profit sectors, committed to the success of every child in Ottawa. 

What We Believe

Success By 6 has endorsed the Framework for Promoting Healthy Child and Youth Development which was established by the Children and Youth Agenda (CYA), an initiative led by the United Way/Centraide Ottawa and the City of Ottawa.

We believe that families, community, schools and neighbourhoods as well as public policy decision makers, all have a role in enabling children to achieve their optimal development. Healthy physical, emotional, cognitive, social and spiritual development requires:

• safe and caring environments;
• meeting fundamental needs;
• opportunities to develop competencies; and
• stable and nurturing relationships.

The framework encompasses the five priority areas that Success By 6 has previously promoted: supporting parents, promoting healthy births, promoting early learning and school readiness, promoting the protection of children from abuse and neglect, and supporting neighbourhoods and building safe and caring communities.

Building on the Middle Childhood Matters’ Framework, the CYA project team created the Framework for Promoting Healthy Child and Youth Development. Success By 6 was an active participant in the process. The framework is grounded in evidence-based research and following consultation with children, youth, parents, caregivers and service providers.

What We Do

The core work of Success By 6 has evolved.  Collectively we have determined that we can best serve our community and achieve our goal by focusing on these five priority areas.
We influence change through:

• Public Awareness and Education– Success By 6 raises public awareness on the importance of healthy childhood development, communicates how Ottawa is doing in its efforts to enable optimal child development, increases the community’s understanding and informs community attitudes and practices.
• Advocacy – Success By 6 influences public policy and advocates to create the conditions to support optimal child development.
• Strengthening Community Capacity – Success By 6 provides a structure and forum for people coming together to maximize our community’s effectiveness, reach and resources. We work together to identify opportunities, gaps in services and potential collaborations that will children prenatal to six years of age and their families. These collaborations will increase synergy among partners and ultimately achieve the outcomes we want.
• Community Engagement-Success By 6 engages the community by building partnerships, convening conversations and leveraging resources.
• Research and Evaluation – Success By 6 collects data and conducts research and evaluation to enable stakeholders to make effective decisions about priorities, focus on underlying causes, and support education and advocacy efforts.