2025–2026 Services delivered: OAP — workforce capacity fund
Component: Autism
Legislation: Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017
Service description
The Ontario Autism Program (OAP) Workforce Capacity Fund provides time-limited grants to public and private children’s service providers to help them expand their capacity to deliver clinical services in the OAP.
People served
Grant recipients may include children’s service providers (public and private organizations) who provide OAP services, including Indigenous-led organizations. Children’s service providers may also choose to partner with other organizations such as post-secondary institutions, professional associations, and regulatory colleges, not-for-profit organizations and community groups.
Program/service features
Funding is offered for
Expansion Projects: supports public and private children’s service providers to expand their internal capacity to deliver OAP services to more children and youth
Specific service provided
The following activities are eligible
Expansion Projects: staff training; hiring additional staff or increasing staff hours; purchasing clinical supervision; purchasing technology that directly supports virtual service delivery; and service provider travel to serve more children living in rural or remote communities.
Program goals
The goal of the OAP Workforce Capacity Fund is to grow and develop the autism workforce delivering OAP services so that families in the OAP can purchase the services they need, where and when they need them.
Overall, the Fund has three broad objectives
- staff: build, retain, and grow the OAP clinical workforce
- organizations: increase the skills and knowledge of service provider organizations to deliver OAP services, including core clinical services, and/or to operate within a fee-for-service market
- delivery models: strengthen service delivery models and approaches to improve service access for families
The program accepts applications focused on any region or sociodemographic group, however, applications focused on improving access for northern, rural, remote, Indigenous and/or francophone families will be prioritized for funding.
Ministry expectations
The program will be administered in accordance with the application guidelines and procedures issued by the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services (MCCSS) and amended from time to time.
Eligible and ineligible activities for both streams are outlined in the application guidelines.
Reporting requirements
Service data will be reported on at an Interim and Final stage. Please refer to your final agreement for report-back due dates. Applicants will be required to show that funding has been spent as intended during the first year of implementation before receiving funding for year two.
| Service data name | Definition |
|---|---|
| # of Additional Individuals Served: OAP - Workforce Capacity Fund | The number of additional* children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder who received clinical services from the TPR during the reporting period as a direct or indirect result of grant funding. *Note: “Additional” children refers to the number of children served as a result of the grant funding that are in addition to the estimated number of children you would be able to serve without the grant funding (e.g., your baseline capacity). |
| # of Staff Trained: OAP - Workforce Capacity Fund | The total number of staff at the organization who completed training funded by the OAP Workforce Capacity Fund during the reporting period. |
| # of Full-Time Equivalent Clinicians: OAP - Workforce Capacity Fund | The total number of FTE clinician jobs that were funded directly by the OAP Workforce Capacity Fund during the reporting period. |
| Ministry-funded Agency Expenditures: OAP - Workforce Capacity Fund | Total ministry-funded expenses for the Transfer Payment Recipient to administer and/or deliver this service in the Funding Year (cumulative). |