John McGivney Children’s Centre Earns Top National Honour—Exemplary Standing from Accreditation Canada

April 22, 2025

The John McGivney Children’s Centre (JMCC) is proud to announce it has once again been awarded Exemplary Standing by Accreditation Canada—the highest level of accreditation possible. This marks the second consecutive time JMCC has received this prestigious designation, having also achieved Exemplary Standing in 2021.

This significant accomplishment follows a comprehensive on-site assessment conducted from March 23 to March 26, 2025. During the assessment, surveyors engaged with a wide range of stakeholders, including board members, staff, families, and community partners, to evaluate JMCC’s performance against national standards of excellence.

“At JMCC, quality and safety are at the heart of everything we do,” said Jennifer Jovanovski, CEO. “We welcomed this accreditation review as an opportunity to evaluate our services through a national lens, ensuring that we continue to meet—and exceed—the highest standards of care for children and youth with disabilities and their families across Windsor and Essex County.”

“This achievement reflects the passion, professionalism, and unwavering commitment of the entire JMCC team,” said Terry Johnson, Chair of the JMCC Board of Directors. “As a Board, we are incredibly proud to support such a dedicated group of individuals who go above and beyond each day to ensure that children and youth across Windsor and Essex County receive the best possible care.”

Highlights of the Surveyor comments include:

• …As leaders within the children’s treatment centre (CTC) space, the organization creates innovative new programs that are responsive to the community, including a new audiology service partnership and well received transition programming including transition clinics, life skills programming, transition to adulthood programming, and transition to employment.
• The organization demonstrates strong commitment to infection prevention and control (IPAC) priorities.
• The pre-assessment intake clinics effectively address waitlist concerns, supported by enthusiastic and committed clinicians.
• A robust youth advisory and family advisory committees codesign new programs, which shows the evolution of client-centred planning and long-standing client and family satisfaction.
• The centre is congratulated for its expansive view of health and recovery, ensuring partnerships that cover the developing needs of its clients and the social determinants of health.

Areas of Excellence include:

• The organization has significant strengths…including governance and due diligence, leadership and staff service planning and delivery, innovative multi-transition programs, communications through social media and video series, and the youth and family advisory councils.
• Risk management strengths are demonstrated through the organization’s risk management framework, its revised pandemic policy, its cyber insurance and debriefing/learning from local cyber-attacks, and regular emergency preparedness drills.
• Solid quality improvement outcomes include adaptive leadership for quality initiatives, open-source sharing such as the OT tip sheet, and the new quality committee structure that features the staff and family committee, which reports and provides quality improvement planning and metrics to the governance quality committee.

Earning this prestigious designation affirms JMCC’s unwavering commitment to excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement. It is a reflection of the dedication and hard work of the entire JMCC team, who strive each day to support children and youth in reaching their full potential.

To read the full JMCC Accreditation Report, please click here.

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