C5 - Culture, Family, and Community: An Indigenous Approach to Keeping Our Children Safe
Over 25 years, the Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Service Society has developed a unique approach to keeping indigenous children safe within their families, communities, and cultures. “Restorative child welfare” is grounded in indigenous worldviews, addresses the impacts of colonization, and incorporates indigenous practices and teachings into child protection case management. Presenters will share stories of success, focusing on family preservation, reunification and placement within kinship networks. They will also show how strengthening connectedness across the 4 dimensions of relational, cultural, physical and legal permanency shortens and/or enriches a child’s time in care, and ask what can be learnt from this Canadian urban experience for application under Family First.
Presenters: Carolyn Oliver, Claudia Liddle and Sandra Gray, Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Service Society, Vancouver, Canada