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Red Deer: Permanency and Cultural Planning for Indigenous Children in Care

Child and Youth Services, Human Services, would like to invite you to take part in a discussion on permanency and cultural planning for Indigenous Children in care. Since September 2016, we have met with several committees and stakeholder partner groups to have this discussion. Your collective feedback will assist in shaping our next steps.

The issue of overrepresentation of Indigenous children in care has been identified as a priority. The work done on the Child Intervention Practice Framework was a step in the right direction, but we recognize that this is a long journey and believe that the discussion on "permanency" and cultural planning for Indigenous children and youth in care is one of many important discussions that need to take place. We want to listen to you and learn from you as we work together to improve outcomes for children.

Underlying all of the discussions so far, is the belief that every child has the right to grow up as part of a stable and nurturing family, preferably with the child's own family and community. Success includes life-long, positive relationships that are built on stability, attachment and belonging for the child. These relationships also include connection to language, culture, and tradition.

Although there have been improvements made over the past few years, we recognize that we need to do a better job for young people in our permanent care. We value your input as to how we can make that happen.

We will discuss the following 2 questions:
1) If you were to describe the term or concept of permanency to someone, what would you say? a) Are there other ways or phrases that better capture the idea of permanency? b) Does the term "Cultural Connectedness" resonate with you?
2) We haven't always done cultural connections and planning well, and we want to make improvements. In your experience, is there anything that has worked well in the past? a) How can we do a better job of ensuring that children have connections to their community or culture? b) Understanding that need to start making connections for children and building relationship early, how do you see this happening? How do you see yourself as a part of the process?