Time to Attach Campaign
A national campaign to add 15 weeks of Attachment Leave Employment Insurance Benefits for adoptive parents, kinship and customary caregivers.
Attachment leave is about giving children and youth more Time to Attach to improve the long-term outcomes for them and their families and complements the existing parental benefits of 35 weeks. Canada’s system does not measure up to the standards of many other countries, in terms of equality with biological parents compared to benefits for adoptive parents.
You can support families formed by adoption, kinship, and customary care for the right to equal parental leave.
Most children adopted in Canada are over the age of 10 at the time of placement and many have a history of trauma or serious loss. Having their new parent or caregiver(s) at home longer, in the critical first year, gives them time to form attachments and begin processing their grief and loss. Currently the parental benefit system allocates a longer paid leave to biological parents (50 weeks) then to adoptive parents, kinship, and customary caregivers (35 weeks).
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Support Bill C59
Equal Parental Leave for Families formed through Adoption
Bill C59 creates parity in the parental benefits landscape through the creation of a new 15-week EI benefit for adoptive and intended parents. Join us in support now!
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Write your member of Parliament
Email your Member of Parliament. Ask them support C-318 and let them know that equality in parental leave options is important to you.
Looking for an example of what to write? You can customize this template.
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Share your reason why supporting Bill C59 is important
You can:
Record a video (30-45 seconds is best!)
Record an audio clip (30-45 seconds is best)
Write a blog (approx. 400 words)
Media Coverage
![[EN/FR] Adoption Community Campaigns for a New Type of Parental Leave in Canada | Le milieu de l’adoption milite pour un nouveau type de congé parental au Canada](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/65ba78ed642f8f39e1ac8cb1/1708020563099-MJHESCVX3H51GW10BIA6/tta_feb19_release_EN_Page_1.png)
Are you a policy maker?
We need your help.
In our ongoing advocacy for expanded parental leave benefits for adoptive parents, kinship and customary caregivers, Interwoven Connections—Ontario’s Adoptive Parents Association, the Adoption Council of Canada, and researchers from Western University, continue to work with families, community partners, and policy-makers across Canada to influence the creation of a new category of EI benefits called “attachment benefits”. Attachment leave is about giving children more #TimeToAttach, in order to improve the long-term outcomes for them and their families. We are working collaboratively on this initiative with child welfare advocates across Canada.
As leaders and policy makers, we need your help to support some of Canada's most vulnerable children and youth - here are 5 ways you can take action today:
Watch our national conversation. In this video featuring experts from Interwoven Connections, the Adoption Council of Canada, and Western University, and adoption advocates with lived experience, for a national conversation on why #TimetoAttach is critical for families and children.
Watch highlights of our key learnings. This playlist of short (under 1 minute) videos highlight many of the key learnings from the #TimetoAttach work so far.
Connect with us. Reach out to Adopt4Life or the Adoption Council of Canada, to arrange a direct conversation with us. Our leadership would be pleased to meet with you individually to answer any questions you, or your teams, have.
Download the full Time to Attach report. See the independent research findings and conclusions from researchers with Western University.
Read the experiences. Read the stories shared by our community, offering their personal insights and experiences as parents and caregivers on how 15 weeks of Attachment Leave would strengthen their families.
Read our federal budget submissions. Review our most recent submission for Budget 2020, urging the immediate implementation of Attachment Leave benefits as committed in the mandate letter for the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development, and Disability Inclusion.
In this video featuring experts from Interwoven Connections, the Adoption Council of Canada, and Western University, and adoption advocates with lived experience, for a national conversation on why #TimetoAttach is critical for families and children.
This playlist of short (under 1 minute) videos highlight many of the key learnings from the #TimetoAttach work so far.
Additional Resources
READ THE FULL REPORT
Our partners at Western University on the Time to Attach team surveyed close to 1,000 adoptive parents and caregivers across Canada about their parental leave needs as they transitioned a child or youth into their home. This is the first survey of its kind in Canada and it reveals the unique challenges adoptive, kin and customary care families face during the first year and beyond. Please read the report to better understand why we're advocating for a new type of parental leave (attachment leave) to meet the attachment needs of children and youth joining families through adoption and other permanent forms of care.
READ THE PRELIMINARY FINDINGS SURVEY
In the spring and early summer of 2018, Western University and Adopt4Life surveyed adoptive parents, people awaiting an adoption, and customary or kin caregivers in Canada about their perspectives on Canada's Employment Insurance benefits system. Our goal was to learn more about whether this system is sufficient to meet the needs of families like theirs. Here are some of the other highlights from this study.
This research is funded through an open research grant provided by the Social Science and Humanities Review Board (SSHRB) at Western University. For more information on the research team, please visit https://timetoattach.com.
SEE OUR ENDORSEMENTS
READ FINANCIAL BUDGET SUBMISSIONS
Download PDF