Metis foster homes needed

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The Metis foster care program, which was formed by the Metis Children's Services Society this year, assist Alberta Social Services in finding suitable homes for Metis children who have been apprehended. Most of the programs efforts go towards children who are still in temporary wardship (less than two years in care.)

Passed 18 months ago, the Child Welfare Act, enable program director Brian Fayant to try to find extended family members, the ideal home for children new to the "system." Fayant says the program follows a basic criteria when recruiting a Metis foster parent: to ensure that the child is receiving the best care possible.

Whether the applicants are single, married or living common-law with someone, their marital status must be unchanged for one year prior to contacting him. Fayant also looks at the emotional, physical and financial states of a potential parent. If, for example, the parent has suffered a serious trauma such as sexual abuse in the past, this person must seek out treatment for the trauma before being accepted for the program.

Obviously, if a person is physically unable to tend to their needs, it would be difficult to do so for a child. Financial problems may also rule out a parent because all money received for fostering should be spent on the child, not on the parent's needs.

Fayant, the sole staff member of the program, also checks applicants past medical and criminal records. In addition, he asks them for three references and says a healthy family and home environment with good values is essential.

Special attention is given to pre-schoolers. Because they cannot possibly be alone, one parent must stay at home with the child at all times.

Applicants are asked to attend three parent orientation programs (generally held in the evening for two hours) where information such as dealing with problems the parent might encounter with the child and the importance of Metis culture are discussed and taught. The parents are told what is expected of them and made aware that the children may eventually be returned to their natural parents.

When home visits are conducted, Fayant will go over the application with the foster parents and their families and see that every person in the house agrees to the fostering of the child.

From the time Fayant meets the potential parent until the time this person is accepted for the program may take as long as four months. But, he says, this is a necessary process, one that often scares off people who might abuse this type of

program.

"You see them cold and scared," says Metis foster parent Gail Nolan, who sees Metis and Native foster children 24 hours a day because she agreed to let her home become an emergency receiving foster home. What this means is that Gail receives children who have just been apprehended by the crisis unit of Alberta Social Services. Gail says while she was growing up in Ashmont, Alberta her mother was a "foster parent before there were foster parents. If there was somebody down and out, they could stay with us," so fostering is not new to her. Gail grew up with a good set of values, which she passed on to the foster children and her son Doug. The 34-year-old said one day he was upset because other children were putting him down for being Metis. She told him to say, "yes, I am part Indian and...proud of it." Gail then talked with the children, who had been teasing Doug, and their parents. Since that time she and her family have not had any problems of this nature in their neighborhood.

When children are brought to Gail's home, the social workers from the crisis unit tell her why they have been apprehended, and she says that most of the cases are alcohol or drug related.

Linda Saxby says she is fostering her third child. All of them were students at Ben Calf Robe School where Linda is a counsellor. She knew her present foster child for two years and "felt if she (the foster child) needed a home..." then the Winnipeg native,"...wante to be her foster parent.

"I ask for temporary guardianship because I really believe that the kids belong with their natural parents," Linda added that Metis foster children belong in Metis homes, "but the reality is that there aren't enough Native or Metis foster homes. But this is not bad as long as the white homes has Native awareness..." She also said that the non-Native homes can find resources for Metis culture at such organizations as Metis Children's Services and emphasized that "we need more Metis and Native foster parents."

"I was brought up in a foster home, and I was never let to see my family," said Violet McConnell, who was raised in a foster home for six years and is now a foster parent herself. Violet's 11 brothers and four sisters were all wards at one time or another. She has kept some of them and has never received a cent for it, but her intention never was to get money for any of the children. Violet's present foster children are both extended family members and she does receive money for the most recent one that came under her care, but "it's not important that I get anything.,..he's (the foster child) important."

Violet says when she was in the foster home, she lost her Cree language and didn't regain it until she spent time with her grandmother. The 34-year-old from Lac La Biche feels strongly that "culture is important to people...you need something to identify with."

Sandra Thickson was bought up in 19 different foster homes. Sandra, or Sash, as she likes to be called, says "only the love of God shining upon me has made it possible to survive the tragedies which have happened to me through the foster care system.

"I was emotionally, sexually, and physically abused...and if there was any other kinds of abuse you could probably put those on the list, too."

Sash says she knew nothing about her Metis culture and said with some pain in her voice, "I was ashamed of it. I was taught that being Native was a stigma...I was even given cosmetic urgery when I was in a foster home to get rid of my Native nose and make me look white...I had to seek out my Native culture."

The Winnipeg-born university student, who is in her fourth year at the U of A where she is completing her bachelor of education studies, has attended "all of the Native ceremonies...(and) was involved with the American Indian Movement " in the United States.

Sash had no contact with her natural family until she was 21 years old, when she met her sister. "she (the sister) wanted nothing to do with me. She felt I got a better chance in life..." said the 31-year-old. Sash later made contact with her mother, but their time apart had made them grow in different directions. Sash has not seen any of her family members since that time eight years ago and has no relationship with any of the foster parents she was with. She said, "I have no home to say that is my mother, my father, my sister...I am alone."

"I intend to work on a book...(on) growing up in foster homes, what I have learned from it and the effect it has had on me as an adult."

In April next year, when Sash completes university, she plans to take her two children north and work on the book.