A Canadian Child Welfare Agency for Urban Natives: The Clients Speak.
1998; Child Welfare League of America; Volume: 77; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0009-4021
Autores Tópico(s)Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights
ResumoThis article is based on interviews with six clients of a child welfare agency that currently provides prevention and support services to the Native population of Metropolitan Toronto, Ontario. The clients speak about their experiences with the agency and its programs. Their comments contribute significantly to the development of the agency in its aim to secure a mandate for child protection. The question of how to maintain a level of trust and comfort when taking on the responsibility for child protection is explored. Native Child and Family Services of Toronto (NCFST) offers prevention and support services related to child welfare for Native' people of Metropolitan Toronto. NCFST is seeking a mandate for child protection services. Six clients were asked about their experiences with the current services, and about how they would like to see NCFST develop as it takes on responsibility for child protection. Information gathered from the interviews is presented according to themes. Conclusions drawn from the themes are related to other literature about Native child welfare. Background During the 1960s, Native children were removed from their homes in great numbers by child welfare authorities and placed for adoption in non-Native communities. The proportion of children taken was so high that some reserves2 lost almost a generation of their children [Johnston 1983: 23]. The impact on both the communities and the children was devastating, and has been associated with the destruction of Native communities and the genocide of Native peoples [Monture 1989: 3]. The decades following the '60s saw the continued apprehension of Native children from their communities [Johnston 1983: 24], which contributed to the Native peoples' feelings of fear, hostility, and distrust concerning the Children's Aid Societies. In the 1970s, Native political bodies began to lobby for Native control of Native child welfare [MacDonald 1985] with the result in Ontario of the inclusion of provisions for Native child welfare in the provincial government's Child and Family Services Act (CFSA) [Government of Ontario 1984]. Like the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act in the United States [P.L. 95-508], CFSA opened the way for the development of Native-controlled child protection services. New provisions allowed for band3 representation and participation in matters of child welfare, and prioritized the placement of Native children in Native homes [Richard 1995; Tester 1986]. At this writing, five Native agencies have a child protection mandate in Ontario, and five more are currently seeking such a mandate. NCFST is the only Native-controlled4 urban child welfare agency in Ontario. As noted above, it is involved in the process of gaining the child protection mandate currently held by the Metropolitan and Catholic Children's Aid Societies of Toronto. Toronto has an estimated 40,000 Native people [1991 Census, Statistics Canada] out of a total population of 2.3 million. Qualitative Research A qualitative method of research was chosen to facilitate an indepth analysis of client motivations and needs. Interviews were transcribed and coded according to methods described by Miles and Huberman [1984: 66-69] and by Tesch [1990: 128-130]. All of the clients interviewed were female caregivers, and the material presented comes from this perspective within the family [see Eichler 1991: ch. 5]. The women ranged in age from the late twenties to the mid-sixties. All of the women had between two and six children living with them; the children ranged in age from infancy to young adulthood. Two of the women were grandmothers caring for grandchildren. Four of the six clients had experienced the apprehension of their children by the Children's Aid Society (CAS). Participants were selected by the NCFST staff on the basis of participation in NCFST programs (for longer than six months), the range of services they had used, and how available they were for an interview. …
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