Strongest Families Institute
Free mental health & well-being programs available for Veterans and their families
Military life can bring unique challenges for individuals and families - from postings and deployments to training, reintegration, and other periods of transition. Strongest Families Institute (SFI) offers free, accessible, evidence-based mental health programs designed to help CAF members and their families build practical skills to navigate these challenges. Programs are delivered from the comfort and privacy of home through trained coaches, with individual and group-based options available for children, youth, adults, and families.
Support for CAF Families
Strongest Families works closely with the Canadian military community and has adapted its services with military and Veteran families in mind. Programs are co-created with people with lived experience, and coaches receive additional military cultural competency training to better understand experiences such as postings, deployments, reintegration, and transitions to civilian life.
With support from Military Family Services and other partners, Strongest Families programs are available to Canadian military members, Veterans, and their families both INCAN and OUTCAN.
Programs include:
- Parents Empowering Kids: Practical strategies for parents and caregivers supporting children with challenging behaviours
- Chase Worries Away: Skills to help children ages 6-11 manage anxiety and worries
- Defeat Anxiety: Support for youth ages 12-17 experiencing anxiety
- Dry Nights Ahead: Support for children ages 5-12 experiencing nighttime bedwetting
- ICAN: An adult program for ages 18+ focused on stress, anxiety, depression, excessive worry, and coping with major life stressors
SFI is not a counselling service. Instead, its programs teach evidence-based skills that individuals and families can continue using in everyday life. Services are offered remotely, helping remove geographic barriers and making support easier to access wherever military life takes you.
Explore Strongest Families Institute programs and military family supports >>
Interested in a program? Reach out to our Mental Health Team for a referral.
We know that Veteran families are strong, resilient, resourceful, and like all families, need support for mental health issues impacting family functioning and well-being.
