About Government

Overview

Through providing and funding an integrated and cost-effective range of community-based services for individuals and families, the Ministry of Community and Social Services:

• provides income and employment supports to Ontarians in need so they can move toward self-sufficiency in their communities;
   
• supports families and communities to help Ontario's most vulnerable citizens live with dignity; and
   
• provides important community services to those who need them the most, in the fairest possible manner.

Major Responsibilities

The Ministry of Community and Social Services has two core businesses:

• income and employment supports; and
• social and community services.

Income and Employment Supports

Through Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program, the ministry provides income and employment supports to Ontario residents who are most in need. These programs help individuals and families live as independently as possible in their communities.

Ontario Works:
Ontario Works provides financial and employment assistance to eligible people in temporary financial need. People receiving assistance through Ontario Works participate in a wide range of employment assistance activities which help them prepare for, find and keep a job.

Ontario Disability Support Program:
The Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) provides financial and employment assistance to eligible people with disabilities to meet their unique needs and to help them gain greater independence.

The program recognizes that many people with disabilities can and do want to work. The program provides:

• financial assistance to meet the longer term requirements of people with disabilities in need; and 
   
• employment assistance through a voluntary program offering a range of employment supports. 

Social and Community Services

The Ministry of Community and Social Services provides and funds a range of effective and accountable social and community services directed to those who are most in need and at risk. These programs include:

Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Strategy - a comprehensive approach to reducing family violence in First Nations and Aboriginal communities and improving the health of Aboriginal people who live on or off reserves.

Adoption Disclosure Register - implements the adoption disclosure provisions of the Child and Family Services Act , by:

• maintaining a voluntary register for the parties to an adoption
   
• providing information and search services to adult adoptees, and
   
• carrying out priority searches required for reasons of health, safety or welfare.        

Developmental disabilities - services and supports for people with developmental disabilities.

Family Responsibility Office - ensures that support payments flow properly from payors (people who make support payments) to recipients (people who receive them).

Homelessness Prevention Programs - provides funding to municipalities for a range of services which help people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

Interpreter and Intervenor Services - provides funding to non-profit agencies for interpreter and intervenor services for people who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, or deaf-blind.

Violence Against Women - provides funding for a range of programs including shelters for women, counselling for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, rape crisis centres, hospital-based sexual assault treatment centres, victim crisis assistance and referrals, domestic violence courts, and victim witness assistance through the court system.