Getting and good as you give

Page 15

Saskatchewan First Nations are working diligently to provide foster families on reserve to allow children in need of care the chance to remain on their home reserves.

Since 1995, Saskatchewan First Nations have been working with Saskatchewan Social Services in a contract arrangement as First Nations Child and Family Service agencies (FNCFS).

"We have 17 agreements in place and it has made an impact in terms of having Aboriginals provide foster care for Aboriginal children," said Bill Carney, director of communications for Saskatchewan Social Services. "It is providing foster care that is culturally appropriate that allows as much as possible for the children to stay on the home reserve."

While the FNCFS agencies care for the needs of Aboriginal children on reserve, Saskatchewan Social Services continues to care for the need of Aboriginal children off reserve.

"We certainly do have a need for Aboriginal foster families because about 60 per cent of our caseload are Aboriginal kids off reserve," said Carney. "Although social services only worries about kids who are in need of foster care off reserve and although we do have a fair number of Aboriginal families to begin with, we still need more to give these children what they need."

The FNCFS of the Onion Lake First Nation currently has 45 foster families that are providing care for 65 children. The agency is working diligently to generate more foster families and to ensure that the families are continuing to acquire the proper training to care for the children.

"It has been a bit of a struggle in terms of thathe foster families that we have are not as trained as we would like them to be," said Connie Matchatis, director for the FNCFS agency in Onion Lake.

The agency is also trying to establish more professional staff to be able to address all the needs involved that include caring for children with disabilities and so on, explained Matchatis.

"The agencies are fully functioning and operational in providing professional care on reserve. There are a couple who are still in a developmental stage and it takes some time if it is a new service on reserve to get a board in place, a professional manager and then to hire professional social workers," said Carney.

Matchatis feels that although they are not quite where they want to be they are on the right track with all of the responsibility that comes with a new agency.

"We have already taken some steps in networking within the community and working with different programs in the schools,"said Matchatis. "We're setting up meetings with them and we are going to be doing some community forums, as well, to provide community education, and hopefully through that process we will be able to attract people who would be good candidates for fostering."

Matchatis is also interested in attracting working families in order to provide more foster families for the children in need.

"The way the foster parenting program is set up is that it doesn't really promote someone who is working. They prefer people who are at home," said Matchatis. "But if people are working, we try to match them up with children who are in school so their schedules are better matched. So that is one of the areas we would also like to expand on."

The agency is also providing what is called an alternate placement with extended family for the foster children, which is utilized quite extensively, explained Matchatis.

"The big issue with social services is that even though we may apprehend children who are at some risk of being abused we want at best for those children to go back to the families," said Carney. "So in that case if the family can kind of resolve its problems, if its on reserve it is helpful then to put a child at a neighbor's house or an aunt's house or grandmother's house until the social workers can work with that family."

Matchatis feels that the alternate placement is often better for the child in that the child does not feel as displaced and thereore there is less trauma for him or her.

"That way the child is not disrupted too much as opposed to taking the child off reserve to another location if a foster family is not available on reserve and then having to place him or her back," said Matchatis.

Matchatis encourages anyone considering becoming a foster parent to seriously think about the benefits that come with fostering.

"Supporting children in these situations is priceless and you can't put a price tag on it because you're a role model to these children," said Matchatis. "That is the most important thing. We do want and need foster parents but we really want them to want to be foster parents."

Matchatis has seen people who are truly gifted with children and she would like to see more such people seriously consider fostering, she explained.

"I think that it is a two-way learning experience. You learn as much as you teach," said Matchatis. "When you care for a child who has not had that type of caring before that in itself is rewarding because you get back the feeling you send off. If you care about somebody, they are going to care about you. Remember that saying: People don't care about you until they know that you care, and so to demonstrate that you just get back so much with the children."