New collaborative approach to Region 6 Aboriginal children in care

A new approach to helping Aboriginal children in care and their families began last month in the Edmonton region.

Money budgeted by Region 6 to deliver services to Aboriginal children brought into care as of April 1 has been passed along to Kahkiyaw, a partnership formed between Bent Arrow Healing Society and Boyle Street Community Services.

“We feel that this is giving us an opportunity to help our families in a different way. We believe in the family unit and trying to keep families together wherever possible, so that’s one of our goals,” said Patti Brady, deputy executive director with Bent Arrow.

“This (approach) naturally increases the flexibility of agencies in how they deliver services on our behalf and also to … ensure we do things as collaboratively as possible … that it is a partnership that involves the family,” said Russ Pickford, regional director with Alberta Human Services. Nearly 70 per cent of the children in care in Region 6 are Aboriginal.

Pickford said his department received a “number of strong submissions” in response to its requests for proposals for alternative mode of child care delivery. The joint response submitted by Bent Arrow and Boyle Street “met our families’ needs the best,” he said.

“Between (Boyle Street’s) programming and our programming, we had a lot to offer our Aboriginal families,” said Brady of the decision made to join forces with Boyle Street and submit jointly.

While Bent Arrow is an Aboriginal-run society, Boyle Street is not.

“I think it shows us it’s  a way forward, that we can work together and there’s much benefit to come from working together … for the common interest of Aboriginal people,” said Julian Daly, executive director with Boyle Street. The majority of Boyle Street’s clientele is Aboriginal.

An outcome-based approach like this, said Pickford, provides more flexibility in not only how to deliver services but in what services are needed. Funding will be given directly to Kahkiyaw, who can then tailor the services to meet the specific needs of children and their families.

Another advantage to having services delivered by Aboriginal workers to Aboriginal families is the higher level of comfort that already exists.

“What we want to do is improve our ability to engage with families and have them feel safe and share their strengths and share their challenges,” said Pickford.  “Sometimes our Aboriginal families feel a little bit judged (by our non-Aboriginal workers) and what that can lead to is not a real open, sharing conversation.”

Kahkiyaw is only dealing with new cases.

“We want to grow the program incrementally, so we’re not giving the agency too many cases all at once while they’re getting their legs underneath them,” said Pickford. This also provides continuity for the families that are being served.

The contract is for three years but could be extended and altered. If Human Services Region 6 base-funding is increased, the additional dollars will be passed on to Kahkiyaw. As well, if regional boundaries change that will impact the children and families Kahkiyaw works with.
Kahkiyaw also has the option of applying for federal dollars on its own to augment services it offers to its Aboriginal children and families.

While Kahkiyaw now has the authority to deliver the services it deems necessary for Aboriginal children in care and their families, Human Services staff will still remain involved, in particular in the legal aspects of the work as the department retains the delegated authority.
“We’ll remain involved, but we won’t be the driving force of the plan,” said Pickford.