2025–2026 Services delivered: Right to Play

Component: provincial initiatives

Legislation: Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017 (CYFSA)

Service objectives

• Support capacity-building of youth workers serving high needs First Nations communities in Ontario through Right To Play trainings for locally-hired community mentors and ongoing support from PLAY Program Officers
• Provide support for community-based youth programming in Ontario First Nations communities through ongoing coaching of community mentors by Indigenous Program Officers throughout the entire program year (September through August)
• Promote the health of children and youth to allow them to be and stay healthy.
• Help children and youth enhance their positive identity by exploring their culture.
• Build children and youth's leadership capacity and develop the skills necessary for Indigenous youth to thrive and succeed.
• Support the reclamation of Indigenous culture through the Indigenous Programs.

Service description

• Indigenous Programs run on a consistent, weekly basis in partner communities for a minimum of 8 hours/week from September through August. Community partners are selected based on an annual application process.
• Funding from the ministry will support core programming in partnership with First Nations across Ontario.
• Programming will be run by the Community Mentor and Indigenous program coordinators.
• Indigenous Programs will provide a community mentorship initiative which is a paid employment program offered to Indigenous youth in Ontario.
• Right to Play will proactively engage with communities experiencing emergencies, including social emergencies, to develop and implement programming that supports the mental and social health of youth as well as community-building.
• Indigenous Programs will provide an awareness to Right to Play participants of other community supports such as employment and training.
• Right to Play will increase programming to 10 additional First Nation communities over the course of the Agreement.
• By March 31 of each year of the Agreement, Right to Play will provide the ministry with a narrative report outlining how the objectives in the service level agreement were met.

Program/service features

• Indigenous Programs services First Nations communities across Ontario. Annual program partners are subject to change, and changes will be clearly identified in and year-end reports

Program goals

• Promote the health of children and youth: through Indigenous Programs, children and youth learn how to be and stay healthy.
• Help children and youth enhance their positive identity: through Indigenous Programs, children and youth can explore their identity and culture.
• Build children and youth's leadership capacity: through Indigenous Programs, youth learn and develop the skills needed to succeed as leaders within their community.
• Support the reclamation of Indigenous culture: through Indigenous Programs, First Nations children and youth (re)connect with their culture and traditions.

Services will be:

• support capacity-building of youth workers serving high needs First Nations communities in Ontario through Right To Play trainings for locally-hired Community Mentors. and ongoing support from Indigenous Program Officers
• provide support for community-based youth programming in Ontario First Nations communities through ongoing coaching of Community Mentors by Indigenous Program Officers throughout the entire program year (September through August)

Ministry expectations

• The transfer payment recipient will
• Provide Programming to youth in Ontario in partner First Nation Communities
• Support capacity building within communities through Community Mentors receiving training and support through Indigenous Programs.
• Support Mental Health and Well-being in youth through play-based learning.
• Support the development of leadership and capacity building for youth within Indigenous Programs.
• Right To Play will also submit quarterly and year end reports
• reporting practices include survey data from youth participants and Community Mentors and anecdotal evidence from Community Mentors

Reporting requirements

The transfer payment recipient will monitor and evaluate the interim and annual data collected through Transfer Payment Ontario to ensure service objectives are being met.

The following service data will be reported on at an Interim and Final stage. Please refer to your final agreement for report back due dates and targets.

Total ministry-funded expenses for the transfer payment recipient to administer and/or deliver this service in the reporting year (cumulative).