Algonquins aim to provide own foster care

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Worried that a rapidly expanding youth population means a concomitant increase in the number of Aboriginal children who will end up in foster care situations, the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan are taking steps to build their own foster care home. They've got the blueprint; they know how they want to run it; they don't have the money to implement it yet.

The proposed building, which they hope to put up in a year, will be the first community-based foster care home in their region. The First Nation is situated on the south shore of the Bonnechere River, 150 km west of Ottawa and 45 km south of Pembroke on Highway 60.

Currently, Pikwakanagan has nine of its children under Children's Aid Society (CAS) mandated care, yet the community has no licenced foster care home to accept children whose families are experiencing difficulties.

The First Nation aims to change that by putting up a building and staffing it with their own community members.

"It's going to be a parent model home. It's going to be a home where the couple can live in. If they have kids, then a roommate for the kids. We hope to be able to be able to keep four kids that require alternate care, but what we want to do is send a letter throughout the territory to all the registered members, hoping to find someone that will come and live at the home and be foster parents," said Hilda Tennisco, a Child and Family Services worker on the reserve who formerly worked for the CAS.

Screening and interviewing prospective parents, said Tennisco, "will have to be done by an agency or society that are able to issue a licence for foster parents and for the home." Probably that will be the local CAS, she added, and they will still be the agency that is placing children.

Band members have formed a committee that has been meeting for just over a year to plan the project. At any given time about a dozen people are involved, and they have 95 per cent attendance at meetings. Tennisco's colleague, Barb Sarazin, an administrative assistant with the agency, belongs to the committee.

They also have an Elder, two band councillors, the Child and Family Services executive director, the manager of social services, the daycare supervisor, an outreach worker and three technical support people with knowledge or expertise that will benefit the project.

One of the three "techies" is community member Paul Clouthier. Clouthier designed and modified the building on his computer, according to the band's specifications, and he donated his work to the cause, Tennisco said. The proposed foster care home is modeled on an arrowhead shape.

Jane Commanda, from Public Works-Lands, Estates and Membership, "was very valuable," said Tennisco. "She brought us a map and showed us the pieces of property that were available" on the First Nation.

They also have a 19-year-old youth representative who "was in and out of care." Tennisco said "She has a lot of valuable information that she was able to share with the committee."

Publicity for the committee is managed by Susan Magill, Pikwakanagan's communications officer.

Plans for the foster care home moved from the idea to design stage, Tennisco said, probably because she heard Chief Glen Hare of M'Chigeeng speak one time. "The views that he had and such a strong voice when it comes to our kids. And then he talked about the foster home that they had built ... and it was to serve five Native communities on Manitoulin. That one has really been tested."

Pikwakanagan surveyed its members to determine support for a foster care home and then advertised for committee members. The community, including Chief Kirby Whiteduck, has been solidly behind the idea from the beginning.

Now they are seeking donations in cash or materials from local businesses, and the committee is looking for other sources. As of Sept. 16, no hard dollars had yet been committed, according to Tennisco, yet she is confident construction will begin by the spring of 2004.

They estimate the bilding, including landscaping, will cost $275,000 and the yearly operating costs are estimated at $38,000.

They believe there will be space for three or four offices in the basement of the home that "will create quite a bit of revenue for the building."

In general, there is difficulty recruiting Native foster parents, and it may be CAS' stringent rules that are deterring people from getting involved, according to Tennisco, but she is hopeful those barriers will break down as the First Nation takes ownership of the model that works for them and their children.