Closing the circle - Aboriginal child welfare in BC

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B.C.' s child welfare protection services for Aboriginal children
are culturally inappropriate and inadequately funded.
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Aboriginal street kids are more likely to see the inside of a jail cell
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BC's aboriginal child welfare system needs overhaul, union report ...
https://www.google.ca/search?q=social+workers+union+aboriginal+child+welfare&tbm=nws
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Closing the circle: a case for reinvesting in Aboriginal child, youth and family services in British Columbia

October 8, 2015

A report prepared by the British Columbia Government and Service Employees’ Union (BCGEU)
as part of the Choose Children campaign.
http://www.bcgeu.ca/closing-the-circle-release
Clearly, Aboriginal children and families are our future.
Indeed, in many ways, they represent the future of
this province.

As Aboriginal people, we enjoy and exercise our inherent
right of jurisdiction over our children and families. We
absolutely need and deserve culturally appropriate and
adequately funded Aboriginal child, youth and family
services. As we all know too well, the existing system is
broken, and desperately needs to be fixed.

I welcome this report because it clearly shows how
and where the system is broken, and makes concrete
recommendations on how to move forward. Our social
services system is overly complex and under resourced.
It completely ignores our culture and history. It needs
greater transparency and accountability. It needs to
be fully revised with the joint planning of Aboriginal
peoples, and as a measure toward reaching reconciliation.

Addressing the legacy of residential schools is intricately
linked to the importance of supporting culturally
appropriate care.

The provincial government can no longer ignore its moral
responsibility to recognize that Aboriginal people must be
supported in exercising their jurisdiction over their children.
It's time to close the circle.

It's time for the provincial government to fully embrace
and act on this report's findings, and ensure that Aboriginal
children and families are receiving the supports they need
and deserve.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip
President of the Union of British Columbia
Indian Chiefs

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The B.C. government is failing to prioritize responsive,
culturally appropriate and properly funded child welfare
services for Aboriginal children, youth and their families.

B.C.’s Aboriginal child welfare system requires a major
investment in resources, staffing, and cultural training
with better oversight and reporting mechanisms.

Services and supports for vulnerable Aboriginal
children, youth, families and their communities are
being compromised by a patchwork welfare system that
is largely culturally unsuitable, under-resourced, severely
under-staffed and struggles under its own complexity.

This report gives voice to frontline workers to draw a
comprehensive picture of the systemic failures in the
province’s Aboriginal child welfare system. The themes
highlighted include: historical and cultural factors; mistrust;
systemic administrative complexity; lack of culturally
appropriate services and staffing; and insufficient funding
to ensure culturally appropriate services for Aboriginal
children, youth, families and their communities. Further,
the continuous removal of Aboriginal children and
youth from their homes is reminiscent of the traumatic
experiences of the residential schools.

B.C. is home to the second largest Aboriginal population in
Canada stemming from approximately 200 First Nations,
about one-third of all First Nations across Canada. They
speak 32 different languages, with distinct identities
and cultures. This diversity must be recognized and
accommodated in B.C.’s Aboriginal welfare system: what is
culturally appropriate for one First Nation is not necessarily
culturally appropriate for another.

For the purposes of this
report, “Aboriginal” refers to First Nations, Métis and Inuit.

Aboriginal children and youth are the most disadvantaged
population in our province. B.C.’s poverty rate for nonAboriginal
children is around 17%. For Aboriginal children,
it’s 28%. Aboriginal youth face far more violence, poverty,
emotional abuse and neglect, social exclusion, substance
misuse and addiction issues, and mental health problems
than their non-Aboriginal peers. They are also greatly
overrepresented within the social welfare system.

At any time, more than half of the 8,100 children and
youth in government care are Aboriginal. Roughly one
in five Aboriginal children will require at least some level
of care from B.C.’s child welfare system during her or his
lifetime. A highly disproportionate number of Aboriginal
children and youth leave their parental home temporarily
or permanently during their childhood.

More than half of the 1,173 cases of critical injuries and
deaths reviewed by B.C.’s Representative for Children and
Youth since 2007 have involved Aboriginal children and
youth. The Representative has conducted several high-profile
investigations and released reports highlighting the systemic
failures of the province’s Aboriginal child welfare system,
including When Talk Trumped Service (2013), Lost in the
Shadows (2014) and most recently, Paige’s Story (2015).
Paige was a young Aboriginal woman who died of an
overdose at age 19 in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
after a lifetime of involvement in the social welfare
system.

Paige’s Story: Abuse, Indifference and a Young
Life Discarded paints a distressing picture of a broken
system that is chronically unable to see the big picture of
Paige’s difficult life circumstances, and that repeatedly
fails to intervene forcefully to protect her.

The report documents the failure of the entire provincial
Aboriginal child protection system, and the failure to
integrate its key components, including the Ministry of
Children and Family Development (MCFD), communitybased
outreach programs, but also the healthcare system,
law enforcement and the education system.

At any one time, there are 100 to 150 Aboriginal youth facing
similar life circumstances to Paige and require immediate and
urgent intervention, the Representative believes.

MORE
http://www.bcgeu.ca/sites/default/files/postings/attachments/Closing_the_Circle_Report_FINAL.pdf