Those involved asked how to change child services system

Since the beginning of the year, children and youth advocate Del Graff and staff have been hearing from those intimately involved in the child welfare system about how Aboriginal children and their families need to be cared for better.

“Because they are the young people who have experienced this system, what they’re saying to us is always embedded in that what-is. ‘I can say this should happen in the future because of my actual experience with what did happen or what is happening,’” said Graff.

The latest numbers released by the province indicate 4,781 Aboriginal children are in care, representing 69 per cent of those children apprehended. While there was an 11 per cent reduction of children in temporary care and three per cent reduction of those in permanent care, the disproportionate number of Aboriginal children remains steady.

Online surveys, specific to young people in care, family/caregivers, and service providers/stakeholders, are winding down with an Oct. 31 deadline to reply.  Focus groups have had about 400 participants, but Graff says there still needs to be input from northern and remote communities. The result of the information gathered will be a special report on Aboriginal young people in care.

The OCYA regularly does special reports. The impetus for the focus of this report came on a variety of fronts, says Graff.

His office anticipates there will be a review of the Child, Youth and Family Enhancement Act by the province and he sees this special report as providing valuable input.

“It would be beneficial to Aboriginal children and families, and to all of the children and families in Alberta, if legislation can be informed by the people most affected by it,” he said. “Those people have a lot to say about how the system could improve for them. Our overall goal is to make it so that there are improved services and outcomes, particularly for this group. It really is about the fact that there still is 69 per cent of the kids in care are Aboriginal.”

In regular meetings over the course of nine months with groups that provide child intervention services, including Delegated First Nations Agencies (who provide services on reserves), the OCYA heard there was a need for a report that addressed Aboriginal children in care.

When the Truth and Reconciliation Commission held is final national event in Edmonton in 2014, Graff was in attendance for most of it. He heard concerns voiced by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people about the relationship Indigenous people have with the government and the child welfare system.

“We could hear (these concerns) …. talked about at the community level…. Things like the Idle No More movement that really has energy generated to say that we need to have some things change. So that combination of that kind of social activist activities also drove us to say, ‘We can’t wait. We need to do this now,’” said Graff.

Perhaps the most important driver for the report, is the fact that there has been no improvement in the number of Aboriginal children brought into care.

“We weren’t seeing those processes or plans being put in place by the government to make it a concrete, tangible difference,” said Graff, who noted that any government success is always tied to a well-implemented plan.

Before moving forward with the special report, Graff got the nod from the Grand Chiefs of all three treaty areas in Alberta, as well as the president of the Métis Nation of Alberta.

Graff was directed to talk with Elders around the province, which he did. From those conversations OCYA was “provided with some very good guidance on how to move forward with this work in a way that is respectful and gets to the information that we need.”

Graff is reluctant to draw conclusions now while the process is still ongoing and the input has yet to be analyzed, but he has observed a desire by both parents and children to share their stories.

“I’ve been surprised with how generous and heart felt people are in responding to the questions. We haven’t had to be push to find people to participate,” he said. “They have lots to suggest about what can improve in the future.”

Graff expects the report to be completed in spring 2016. It will be tabled in the legislature, like all other reports delivered by his office, and made public in a variety of other ways. While recommendations from the report are not binding, there is “some pressure that government experiences when we release a report.”

Photo caption: Alberta’s youth and children’s advocate Del Graff walks with a youth to plant a heart in the garden of hearts at Rideau Hall during the closing ceremony for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Ottawa in June. “Honouring Memories, Planting Dreams” gardens appeared throughout the country in remembrance of children who lost their lives at residential schools.