Yellowhead Tribal Services hosting conference

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Caring for First Nations children and families will be the topic of discussions at the Coast Terrace Inn in Edmonton May 22 to 25,as the Yellowhead Tribal Services Agency hosts "Caring For Our Children In The New Millennium", a national First Nations child and family services conference.

The conference is aimed at anyone involved in providing care and support for First Nations children and families, including child welfare workers, directors and staff, board members, tribal leaders, social workers and social work students, educators, parents, elders, committee members and foster parents.

The conference is being held to provide a forum through which First Nations organizations and agencies can share information and experiences in the delivery of tradition-based programs and services, and discuss the development of supports for children, families and service providers.

Workshop presenters will come from across Canada, as well as from the U.S., and will cover a variety of topics, including open and custom adoptions, legal matters, family support, protection services, foster care, staff development, prevention services, and community development.

Although the Yellowhead Tribal Services Agency was involved in co-ordinating a western child and family services conference in 1992, this is the first time it has co-ordinated such a conference on a national scale.

"The board of directors figured it was time . . . . I don't think there's been a national child welfare conference in Edmonton before," conference Co-ordinator Harvey Burnstick said.

His agency wanted to hold a national child welfare conference to celebrate the new millennium.

"They asked me to put a budget together, and I presented it, and they liked the idea and they said, 'go for it,' . . . and then they gave me the direction to contact as many agencies across Canada to come down and make a presentation.

"We have a variety of people from across Canada coming down," Burnstick said. "I guess the whole idea is networking, and sharing information.

"We have some programs across Canada, like repatriation in Winnipeg-they're searching for their lost children. The same as the one in B.C. -(a) reunification program. We have some foster care models, people that develop foster care model programs, and they're coming down to make presentations, and adoption programs. So there's a lot of community development workshops happening. And I guess the whole idea is for people to get new ideas to take back with them.

For more information, contact Yellowhead Tribal Services at (780) 481-7390 and ask for Harvey or Anita Burnstick.