If there's one thing this year has taught me, it's that Family Councils Ontario doesn't do this work alone — and honestly, we shouldn't want to. Some of our biggest wins this year came from partners who believe in what we do enough to show up for it, whether that's the Ministry of Long-Term Care funding our work, our sector partners standing shoulder to shoulder with us, or our corporate partners deciding FCO was worth investing in.
MLTC: The Funding Behind Our Growth
I don't think I can talk about this year's progress without talking about the Ministry of Long-Term Care. The pilot project funding MLTC provided didn't just pay for more line items — it changed what our team could actually do. It let us grow, begin to get into more communities, and show up as presenters and co-hosts on more webinars that mattered.
Partnering with OARC
Some partnerships don't show up in a headline — they show up every time a family finds exactly what they need at exactly the right moment. That's what our relationship with the JBS Foundation has meant for the Long-Term Care Navigation Guide this year. JBS's grant support has funded the printing and distribution of our navigation guide, and the response we have received has honestly been the best kind of validation. We've had admissions staff at LTC homes tell us it's the resource they wish they'd had years ago. We've shipped boxes of guides out to family councils who wanted enough copies to hand out during home tours. We've even been invited to write op-eds introducing the guide to older adults through papers like the Hamilton Spectator.
Moving a loved one into long-term care can feel overwhelming — but you don't have to do it alone. FCO's free Navigation Guide walks Ontario families through every step, from the application process to move-in day and beyond, so you can make this transition with clarity and confidence.
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Welcoming Jackson Therapeutics as a New Sponsor
Jackson Therapeutics signed on this June as our newest corporate sponsor. Their support is visible in our monthly emails, and they helped bring our Oakville and Sudbury tour events to life by sponsoring meals for attendees. Jackson Therapeutics has been providing one-on-one therapeutic recreation services to long-term care and retirement homes since 2003. They work with residents living with dementia, Alzheimer's, responsive behaviours, stroke recovery, and other needs, offering both in-person and remote therapeutic recreation staff to homes across the Waterloo, Hamilton, Niagara, Halton, Peel, Toronto, York, Durham, and Ottawa regions.
Jackson Therapeutics provides one-on-one therapeutic recreation services to long-term care and retirement homes across Ontario.
Visit Jackson Therapeutics →At Family Councils Ontario, we partner with companies whose products and services we genuinely believe in — organizations that are actively improving the quality of life for residents and easing the journey for families navigating long-term care. If your organization or company shares that commitment and you're looking for a meaningful way to connect with the families, caregivers, and care providers who make up our community, we'd love to talk. Whether it's sponsoring an event, supporting a resource like the Navigation Guide, or building a longer-term partnership like the ones you've read about here, there are a number of ways to get involved.
Contact Ioan Williams →
A New Kind of Visibility with Elderado and Seniors Living CaRES Fund
This year we started a new partnership with Elderado, the Ontario-based platform that helps families search and compare long-term care and retirement homes — often described as the "Google Flights" of senior care search. Together, we've been finding ways to support each other's work: promoting each other's initiatives and helping more families discover the resources they need when they need them. As part of this partnership, we sat down with Elderado in November for a video interview, sharing more about FCO's mission and the role Family Councils play in long-term care.
Additionally, working with Rebecca at Seniors Living CaRES Fund gave us a chance to tell FCO's story to a whole new audience of donors who care deeply about seniors' quality of life. It's the kind of collaboration that reminds us partnership doesn't have to feel transactional; it can be as simple as storytelling alongside people who already believe deeply in the work.
The partnerships above are the ones with the clearest stories to tell this year, but they sit inside a much wider network we're proud to be part of. Whether it's a joint webinar, research, or a quiet email exchange about how to better support a family in crisis, every one of these relationships makes FCO's work a little more possible — and everyone is a reminder of how much stronger this sector is when we choose to work together rather than in parallel.
Building Belonging, Together
Looking ahead, we're excited to continue our collaboration with OARC through 2027, expand our programming with the MLTC, and build on what we've started with Jackson Therapeutics and Elderado. Partnership isn't just a nice addition to this work — it's how we reach families and councils we couldn't reach on our own. One thing is for sure: FCO does better work when we're not doing it alone.