The Counselling Foundation of Canada has completed a year-long strategic review process leading to the adoption of a new Strategic Plan (pdf) that reaffirms its focus on grant-making to support the career development sphere.

The Foundation – which funds CERIC – was established in 1959 to create and enrich counselling programs and improve the technical skills of career counsellors in Canada. Since that time it has granted over $70 million to meets its aims. These funds have supported the launch and/or expansion of numerous post-secondary career centres and seeded many innovative programs, including Pathways to Education, first developed in Toronto’s Regent Park neighbourhood and then replicated in other communities nationally. The Foundation also played a leading role in supporting the development of the tri-mentoring model. It has likewise supported programs that promote the employability and career development of new Canadians, LGBTT youth, Aboriginal people, women at-risk and persons with disabilities among many others.

The Foundation continues to believe that the future of the career counselling and career development field is important for the personal development and economic prosperity of Canadians. The Foundation’s Strategic Plan articulates three priority areas of focus for the coming years:

1. Helping to Foster a Sense of Clarity About and Recognition of the Value of the Career Counselling & Career Development Field
2. Actively Participating in the Discussion of the Link between Education and Work in Canada
3. Becoming More Active in the Philanthropic and Charitable Sectors

Read more about the Foundation’s plans in Looking Ahead: Highlights from our 2012 Strategic Review at counselling.net.