About Intra
The Intersection of a Global Shift and a Personal Struggle
Intra was born from a family that lived the childcare shortage firsthand. It was built to ensure fewer families and centres have to experience that same strain.
In 2020, during the quiet of a global pandemic, Intra's Founder and CEO, Chris, relocated his young family from England to Canada alongside his wife, Yuliya. With one toddler and another child on the way, they were navigating a new country during a period of rapid change. Like many parents, they quickly encountered a stark reality: a critical shortage of reliable childcare.
The struggle to find care, and the visible strain on childcare staff, was more than an administrative hurdle. It was a deeply personal pressure point. It became clear that the infrastructure supporting families and early childhood educators needed to be rebuilt.
"We didn't just study a market gap; we lived it. We saw how a lack of reliable staffing support ripples outward, placing pressure on educators, exhausting parents, and ultimately affecting the children."
Flipping the Script: From Agency to Partner
With a background in building businesses, Chris recognized that the workforce challenges of the era required a different kind of response. Traditional staffing agencies operated on a rigid, transactional model that often left childcare centres in a state of operational anxiety, unable to predictably open classrooms or plan ahead.
Intra was built to change that approach, driven by two core ideas:
Connecting independent professionals with the centres that need them
Rather than relying on a rigid pool of workers, we built a network of qualified, independent childcare professionals who accept assignments that fit their lives. By connecting this flexibility with the centres and families who need support, we help bring more available care to the sector.
Dependability as the whole point
In childcare, a missed shift means a closed classroom and stranded parents. We stopped treating childcare centres as customers to call in a pinch, and started treating them as genuine partners.
"We didn't want to be a vendor you call when you're stuck. We designed Intra to be a dependable layer of your everyday operations—a partner you can build your growth around."
The Result: Room to Grow
When a service prioritizes quality and reliability, the experience of running a childcare centre changes.
Today, our partners use Intra for more than filling empty shifts. They use our support to confidently expand classes, open new centres, and plan their budgets, knowing their staffing baseline is secure. We handle the complexities of coverage and compliance so the communities we serve can focus entirely on delivering exceptional care.
Our Mission
To build a reliable future for childcare, replacing staffing stress with dependable, high-quality care.
At Intra, we believe the stability of our families, communities, and broader economy rests on accessible, dependable childcare. Yet childcare directors are too often caught in a cycle of staffing anxiety, managing real labour shortages with outdated tools. We are here to change that.
How we deliver on it:
Connecting supply with real need.
We match qualified, independent educators with the centres and families who need them. By supporting flexible assignments, we help bring more available care to a strained sector.
Growing the next generation of talent.
Through our education partnerships, we help more people earn ECA and ECE qualifications, strengthening the pipeline of professionals the sector depends on.
Freeing directors to focus on care.
We take on the administrative and coordination burden of staffing, allowing centre leaders to focus on delivering exceptional early childhood education instead of managing coverage gaps.
Supporting the sector at scale.
We work alongside community initiatives to address Canada's childcare challenges, giving centres a dependable staffing baseline they can use to open classrooms and reduce waitlists.
"Our mission is to take the friction out of childcare staffing, turning a stressful process into a supportive one where families thrive and providers succeed."
How Intra Works
Not an agency. A connection.
Intra is a platform, not an agency or an employer. We connect licensed childcare centres with qualified, independent childcare professionals. We coordinate that connection to ensure it is simple, dependable, and compliant for everyone involved.
Rather than rigid employment, we work with independent professionals who accept assignments that fit their lives. This flexibility gives centres access to qualified support when they need it, and gives professionals real control over how and when they work.
What we coordinate:
Matching the right professional to the right centre.
Centres tell us what they need. We connect them with verified, independent professionals whose qualifications and availability fit those specific requirements.
Verifying qualifications and compliance.
Safety in childcare is never negotiable. Before a professional accepts an assignment, we collect, track, and verify their background checks, certifications, and credentials.
Handling the administration.
We take care of invoicing, billing, and payment coordination between centres and professionals, keeping the financial side transparent and on time.
Supporting both sides.
When questions or challenges arise, our team is here to help both centres and professionals work through them.
A Clear Separation of Roles
The way Intra is structured keeps roles distinct and independent. Childcare centres define their own needs and decide which independent professionals to engage. Independent professionals retain full control over their availability, choose which assignments to accept, and maintain the freedom to work with other organizations. Intra connects the two, verifies qualifications, and coordinates the administration. We do not direct how professionals do their work, and we do not employ them.
Community Impact
Real impact goes beyond filling shifts. We measure our success by the classrooms we help keep open, the careers we help launch, and the barriers we help break down. We are proud of the partnerships that make this possible.
Toronto Metropolitan University Emerging Employer Winner, 2025
Our commitment to integrating and mentoring co-op students earned us Toronto Metropolitan University's Emerging Employer award for 2025. Through our work with educational institutions, we help students find quality, compliant pathways into rewarding childcare careers.
Proud Partner of the Magnet Network
We work with the Magnet Network to help connect people with meaningful new careers in childcare.
Official Sponsor of the Community Network of Childcare Programs (CNCP)
We are the official sponsor of CNCP, a non-profit providing services and support to over 60 community-based childcare operators running 85 programs across North Toronto and the GTA.
Bringing More Men Into Early Childhood Education
Children benefit when they see themselves reflected in a diverse group of mentors, yet men have long been underrepresented in early childhood education. We actively welcome and support male professionals entering the childcare space, helping build a more inclusive environment for the next generation.
Helping Centres Grow and Reduce Waitlists
When a centre is chronically short-staffed, classrooms close and families are left stranded. By providing a dependable staffing baseline, we help give directors the confidence to expand, which opens up much-needed childcare spots for families waiting on them.
A Licensed Canadian Staffing Partner
Intra operates as a licensed staffing partner in Ontario, supporting compliant Canadian employment arrangements for organizations across the province.
The Road Ahead
Canada's economy relies on the stability of its care infrastructure, yet the sector has long been left to navigate real labour challenges with outdated tools. Intra is here to help change that.
What began as a personal mission to solve an immediate family struggle has grown into something far bigger. We are not just filling gaps; we are working at the deepest structural challenges facing childcare today by growing our network of independent professionals, strengthening compliance, and connecting more centres and families with the support they need.
And we are just getting started.
Let's build a dependable staffing baseline together
Whether you run a centre, manage a home, or are an educator looking for assignments, we would love to talk.