OCYA calls for Aboriginal people to lead path

For the last three years, the province’s Child and Youth Advocate has been calling on the government to work with Aboriginal communities to reduce the staggering number of children in government care.

While Aboriginal youth comprise only nine per cent of Alberta’s population, they account for close to 60 per cent of children in care. According to figures from the Office of the Child and Youth Advocate, four times as many Aboriginal children are being served by child intervention services compared to their non-Aboriginal counterparts; six times as many are in temporary care; and eight times as many are in permanent care.  As well, Aboriginal children stay in care longer than non-Aboriginal children.

“Currently (there is) a very modest reduction of Aboriginal children in care. The first time in many years there’s been a reduction, but very slight. But what we haven’t seen is a plan that’s put together in partnership with Aboriginal people (on) how to address the needs of Aboriginal children in terms of child intervention,” said Child and Youth Advocate Del Graff.

“As the child intervention system gets more intrusive into families’ lives, we see a greater disproportion of Aboriginal children,” he said.

Designating First Nations agencies to handle Aboriginal children in care is not the answer, says Graff, as that only reflects the shifting of the implementation of policy created by government. He also notes that the majority of Aboriginal children, at almost two-thirds, are not being supported by First Nations agencies.

“Ministries keep imposing ways, when in fact there needs to be a partnership that reflects a path forward that is going to work for everyone,” said Graff. “Aboriginal people need to be authors of that pathway.”

What needs to be examined, he says, are those Aboriginal children who are not in care and determining how to make what’s happening in these children’s lives the template for the children who are vulnerable and at risk. Some of the factors that make children successful include strong sense of family, community, culture, and belonging, strengths from extended family involvement and connections and identity.

“Those (are the) things that make children healthy and happy and well-cared for,” said Graff.

Graff’s recommendation of partnership between government and Aboriginal communities has received limited response from the government. Alberta Human Services has initiated discussion with Aboriginal leadership as well as held community consultations and events, in which the Aboriginal community has been made aware of the large representation of Aboriginal children in care.

“The number of Aboriginal children in care is something that absolutely has to change. And if it doesn’t, our system that supports children and families will just continue to struggle to a point of crisis,” he said.

Also troubling, notes Graff, is what he is beginning to detect as a lack of empathy from the general public toward the issue.

 “We can’t be…   desensitized to the fact that there’s such an over-representation of Aboriginal children in government care in Alberta. I think when we get desensitized to that, it’s just really concerning.”

Graff says desensitization may be occurring because the issue is being talked about so much.