The Immigration Blog

A home based program to help parents prepare their children for school and better utilize local community services is expanding its family literacy program in a number of Canadian cities. $3.5 million of funding is being provided by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, which provides the vast majority of the funding, and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada.




The HIPPY (Home Instruction for Parents of Pre–School Youngsters) program this year celebrated its 10–year anniversary. HIPPY Canada helps immigrant families better understand Canadian language, life and culture from home.

Federal funding will help expand services at HIPPY's operations in the Toronto region and at three new sites in Halifax, Red Deer and Ottawa. This will result in family literacy opportunities for an additional 600 newcomer families. In addition, a new curriculum will greatly increase Canadian content in the HIPPY program.