We equip mothers facing multiple barriers to become engaged citizens, confident parents, and prepare their children for success in school.

 

Vision

 

Mothers and their children achieve their full potential and are actively engaged in their communities.

 

Mission

 

Together with our network of dedicated community partners, the Mothers Matter Centre empowers socially isolated and economically vulnerable mothers—including newcomers, refugees, and Indigenous mothers—and their children to live full and productive lives. It creates an environment of acceptance, encouragement, and learning through innovative, evidence-based education and supports.

Our Latest News

Mothers Matter Centre National Office

The national office is the licensing body of HIPPY and other programs that works with community partners to oversee program implementation, training, and performance management. The national office leads program innovation development and supports public awareness of its programs.

Meet HIPPY mothers Beatrice Feza, Meade Manson, and Shinda Shi and learn how the HIPPY program has changed their lives and the lives of their families.

Since our inception, the Mothers Matter Centre has transformed over 55,000 lives. We helped more than 21,000 mothers gain new skills and abilities essential to strengthening mother-child relationships. This means their children and families were better prepared to get the most from their early school experiences.

| Programs & Innovations 

Fast-Track to Learning and Interaction for Parents (FLIP) is a play-based pilot program for refugee families who have just arrived in Canada and have children between 3 to 5 years of age. LEARN MORE

The Women’s Insight Project (WIP) works with isolated, vulnerable, and low-income women in indigenous, newcomer, and racialized communities to empower them through building their capacity and confidence to lead changes at community level. LEARN MORE

Violence Against Women aims to build staff capacity, ensure connection to services for isolated and vulnerable women, and raise awareness to prevent, identify, and direct abuse. LEARN MORE

LINKING THE DIVIDED

MMC is working in partnership with service providers on a Service Delivery Improvement (SDI) Project called Linking the Divided. We received funding from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to run this project from December 2021 to March 2023. LEARN MORE

Indigenous Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) works with Indigenous families in land-based and urban communities to build positive experiences in education and to strengthen their capacity to support learning using a culturally relevant curriculum. LEARN MORE

Our newcomer innovations are designed to help refugee families as they integrate themselves into a new society and their children into Canadian schools. We undertake research to understand the challenges that refugee families face on arrival and implement best practices to support refugee families’ settlement. LEARN MORE

Multicultural Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) supports the mother as the first and most important teacher of her child while addressing issues that immigrants and refugees confront when they arrive in their new country, such as language and cultural barriers. LEARN MORE

Bond to Literacy is a 12-week early literacy program for low-income, disadvantaged families who struggle with issues that may prevent them from making a long-term commitment to the regular HIPPY curriculum.  The program is designed to demand less of families while still providing learning tools and support. LEARN MORE

Adopt-a-Reader is a two-week literacy campaign where HIPPY families “adopt” non-HIPPY families from their community by guiding them through daily activities that focus on parent-child bonding through reading activities.  The mother-to-mother community-centred approach allows the campaign to reach even the most isolated families. LEARN MORE

Supporting Mothers and Raising Toddlers (SMART) is designed to support parents of children ages 18 months to three years of age and focuses on fostering healthy early childhood development, increasing connections to community resources, strengthening social networks, and deepening parent-child bonds. LEARN MORE

Stories of Inspiration

When Mothers Matter, Everything Else Falls into Place

Help Support Our Programs

Help Us Empower Mothers, Transform Families and Uplift Communities.

Our Funders & Program Sponsors

The Right Honourable David Johnston, C.C., C.M.M, C.O.M., C.D., Former Governor General of Canada; and Her Excellency, Sharon Johnston, C.C., are patrons of the Mothers Matter Centre.