Elders' gathering focuses on children's services

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West Yellowhead Child and Family Services Authority held its second annual Elders' gathering Sept. 26 and 27 in Stony Plain. Both Native and non-Native agencies discussed ways to improve services to Aboriginal children and their families.

More than 130 delegates sought wisdom from the Elders of the West Yellowhead region regarding child welfare issues. That was more than double the number that attended last year's gathering, which was the first.

The agencies participating were the Alexander First Nation Child Welfare Committee; Big Brothers and Big Sisters; Forest Green School; Parenting for the Future; and Paul First Nation Counselling Services.

Informal discussions were held at a banquet at Forest Green School, where there was also entertainment provided by the Metis Dancers of Edmonton, traditional dancers from Paul First Nation and by Winston Wuttunee.

"West Yellowhead Child and Family Services and our partners in the community value the wisdom of the Elders," Tracy Balash, a communications officer with West Yellowhead Child and Family Services Authority said. She added that a previous Elders' gathering sparked several important initiatives, such as a partnership between Paul First Nation, Parenting for the Future and Forest Green Elementary School to create the Nakoda/Cree Youth Leadership Program. In addition, Parkland School Division hosted a First Nations in-service day with two Elders participating, and West Yellowhead now has representation on child welfare committees in both the Paul and Alexander First Nations.

Loiselle Arcand who works for the Alexander band said, "There was a lot of discussion around just general child care, and the Elders spoke a lot about traditional child rearing . . . . We mainly discussed how we, as different agencies, can work together to better provide services under child welfare, and just recognizing the efforts that are being put forth in the Aboriginal communities in terms of child welfare."

Region 8, the territory West Yellowhead comprises, is one of 18 regional child and family services authorities in Alberta. All the authorities conducted a review and overhaul of operations since 1994 that put service delivery in four categories or pillars: community based services; early intervention; integrated services; and improved services for Aboriginal children and families.

Arcand said because West Yellowhead offers many different services under its umbrella, they called the gathering to find better ways of working together or creating needed services. "It was just a general brainstorming session that took place. People shared ideas and life experiences."

Specifically, Arcand said the difficulty the group felt needed the most improvement and on which they focused was "the communication piece. (Communication) between the different agencies," she said.

An area where they have seen improvement is their image with the public.

"The goal we're working towards is that we don't want people to view child welfare as a negative thing. We're trying to (promote it as) a support more so than an invasion of families . . . that would speak to some of the things that are going really well. We're all working together to try and put child welfare in a different light," said Arcand.

As far as recommendations arising from the conference, she said time was spent reviewing progress on the recommendations made last year. "Some of the things that the Elders had wanted to see . . . the Elders wanted to know their attendance in coming to these meetings and the ideas they were putting forward, they wanted to start seeing those things put into play."

Arcand added that conference organizer Priscilla Gillis, who was away as we went to press, expressed satisfaction that this was starting to happen.

A key understanding that came across during the conference, Arcand said, was "that no matter what nationality we are, we all have an important role to play in taking care of children."

That theme was echoed by Balas.

"The Elders' gathering is a reminder that we may not always walk the same path, but the goal of the Elders, West Yellowhead and our service partners is the same: to provide a safe and nurturing environment for all children and families," she said.