On this page

1. About Children’s Autism Respite Funding at SCS
2. Goal
3. Revised Process 2024-2025
4. People Served
5. Important Information
6. Feedback

About Children’s Autism Respite Funding at SCS

Children’s Autism respite funding is allocated to SCS by the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services to support flexible and responsive respite services to autistic children and youth as well as their families.

Goal of the Autism Respite Funding

The goal of the Autism respite funding is to provide:

• Temporary relief from physical and emotional demands in caring for autistic children and youth
• Temporary relief for families aimed at reducing family stress and breakdown
• Opportunities for the children and youth to engage in meaningful and purposeful activities that promote the continuity of skills or help to develop new skills and relationships

Revised Process 2024-2025

• Through the lens of continuous improvement, SCS will be introducing a more efficient and effective process to directly support goal and service planning for the children, youth and families receiving case management services.
• As part of the planning process, case managers may access limited funding to support respite services for individuals and families on their caseload. Applications will no longer be required when actively receiving case management services.
• As a waitlist management strategy, children and youth who have been confirmed eligible and placed on the SCS case management waitlist, will automatically be entered into a funding lottery to support access to respite services while waiting for case management services.
• Children and youth who are not receiving case management services or on the waitlist for services, will not have access to the funding lottery.

People served

Autistic children and youth under the age of 18 years old who are actively receiving case management services or have been placed on the waitlist for case management with SCS.

Important Information

• The funds may be used for in or out of home services, planned or emergency-based.
• Services may be provided by a formal service provider, a community program, a support or respite worker.
• Funding is limited and not guaranteed.
• Funding is allocated within a fiscal year, starting in April and ending in March.

The funds may NOT be used to purchase:

• Therapy (speech and language, occupational therapy, ABA, IBI, clinical services)
• House management cost (cleaning, snow plow, repairs)
• Tutoring, assistive devices, computer equipment and software

Feedback

We want to hear from you! Your feedback is important, because the information you share will help us better serve you and help inform our planning.
We invite you to send an email to feedback@scsonline.ca, or to consult our website at scsonline.ca/feedback to learn more about why we collect feedback.