First Peoples Child & Family Review
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Calgary’s Family and Community Support Services’ Social Sustainability Framework and Urban Aboriginal Peoples
No full textFamily & Community Support Services (FCSS) in Calgary is a joint municipal and provincial funding program. The program is designed to develop, support, and fund preventive social services. FCSS Calgary has a number of benefits and truly makes a difference in the community. At-risk youth and vulnerable senior citizens have avenues for positive community involvement, family violence victims are safer, newcomers are welcomed and can feel at home in Calgary, citizens have access to information about the community and crisis services, and urban Aboriginal people are able to develop leadership skills within the community. FCSS programs and agencies align with at least one of the funding priorities (Strengthening Neighbourhoods and Increasing Social Inclusion, outlined in the Social Sustainability Framework). Increasing Social Inclusion concentrates on five populations: families, children and youth, seniors, immigrants, and Aboriginal people (City of Calgary, Social Sustainability, 2010).The new Social Sustainability Framework helps the community in a number of ways. It guides funding decisions by providing FCSS Calgary with clear and consistent principles. By aligning funded programs with identified objectives and outcomes, it helps FCSS account for and communicate its impact on the community. There is an abundance of statistics that support the need for culturally appropriate programs for urban Aboriginal peoples. Research demonstrates urgency for these programs and the current social landscape of urban Aboriginal children, youth, and families. For example, between 1996 and 2006, the Aboriginal population across Canada grew by 45% to reach close to 1.2 million persons, representing 3.8% of the Canadian population. (Statistics Canada, 2008, Canadian Demographics at a Glance, p. 34).Two examples of urban Aboriginal programs from Metis Calgary Family Services (MCFS) is presented within FCSS’s Sustainability Framework; Native Network, and Little Dancing Buffalo. Key words: At risk youth, vulnerable senior citizens, urban Aboriginal people, Calgary, social inclusion, Social Sustainability Framework
Stuck in the Ways of the South: How Meritocracy, Bureaucracy, and a One-Size-Fits-All Approach to Child Welfare fails Nunavut’s Children
No full textBased on qualitative research that explored the experiences of social workers in Nunavut’s child welfare system, this paper examines the current approach to child welfare in light of a critical report issued by Canada’s Auditor General in March 2011. Through a discussion of meritocracy, this study highlights the problematic approach to child welfare used by the Government of Nunavut, particularly in their reliance on Qallunaat or nonInuit social workers. The territory’s current child welfare system, modeled on child welfare systems operating throughout southern Canada, does little to change the status quo and instead serves to maintain the colonial power structure in place for the last 50 years. This study determined that a unique and culturally relevant approach to child welfare is needed in Nunavut and Inuit traditional knowledge is essential is the move towards this important goal2.Key Words: Nunavut; child welfare system; Qallunaat / non-Inuit social workers
“Make Them Stop it”: What Aboriginal Children and Youth in Australia Are Saying About Bullying
No full textThis paper explores and summarizes a three year research program into contextualizing bullying in an Aboriginal cultural environment for youth and children. Bullying is not a new concept; it has been passed down from one generation to the next for many years. Effects of bullying can be long term and often manifest as being the causal pathway to other undesirable behaviours. Among children and youth effects of bullying are seen in many forms, for Aboriginal children and youth these effects are magnified. Aboriginal children and youth are already over represented in truancy, juvenile detention and anti social behaviours, bullying is in the mix and it is preventable. Intra racial bullying and turning inward on one’s own cultural group is surely a cry for help with these complex and intricate relationship issues. This paper concludes by considering some of the implications of these findings for future research and conceptualization and has practical solutions for those who are in the care and position to influence the outcomes for Aboriginal communities.Keywords: Aboriginal children; Australia; bullying; social behaviours
Cannabis Use Among Aboriginal Youth in the Non-Aboriginal Child Protection Services System
No full textThe social, cultural and political contexts of vulnerability need to be considered in defining, understanding, and reducing substance abuse among maltreated youth with an Aboriginal background (MacNeil, 2008; Tatz, 1999). Aboriginal cultures tend to incorporate an ideology of collectivism that manifests in shared childrearing responsibilities within aboriginal families and communities (e.g., Dilworth-Anderson & Marshall, 1996). As such, Aboriginal children may identify with multiple and equally important attachment figures, and be more accepting of multiple caring adult guardians who can direct them away from risky behaviour (Christensen & Manson, 2001). We examined the relationship between cannabis use and reported identification with a caseworker among youth-identified Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal adolescents randomly drawn from the active caseload of a large urban non-Aboriginal Child Protection Services (CPS) system. While an Aboriginal-specific child welfare agency exists in this catchment area, youth need to be identified as Aboriginal to be involved in that system and some youth with Aboriginal heritage inevitably end up in non-Aboriginal CPS agencies. There were no significant differences in rates of maltreatment, trauma symptomatology, or overall cannabis use between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth in this study. However, Aboriginal youth who reported a more negative (i.e., low) identification with their caseworker were five times more likely to use cannabis in the past 12 months compared to Aboriginal youth who reported a more positive (i.e., medium-high) identification with their caseworker. These results suggest that having a moderate-to-high positive identification with caseworker may be a protective factor in regard to abstinence from cannabis use among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth in the non-Aboriginal CPS system.Keywords: Aboriginal Youth; Emotional Abuse, Posttraumatic Stress; Child Protection Services; Adolescent Healt
“Re-Conceptualizing Research: An Indigenous Perspective”
No full textThis paper validates the differing in which Indigenous people are re-conceptualizing research as a form of decolonization, regeneration of cultures and communities, and ultimately self- determination. Indigenous people are taking control of their own destinies by providing needed solutions from within, as individuals, communities and Nations. This paper provides suggestions to indigenize the research process. This paper also includes principles provided by Irabinna (Dr. Lester Rigney) of Australia, the need to historicize, politicize, strategize and actualize our beings and our futures. Ultimately, the inspiration to write this paper comes from my Tlingit ancestors
First Nations Children Count: An Indigenous Envelope for Quantitative Research
No full textIndigneous peoples have increasingly called for disaggregated data to inform policy and practice and yet there has been very little discourse on how to “Indigenenize” quantitative research. This article provides a synopsis of Indigenous research goals before moving onto describe how quantitative research can be placed in an Indigenous envelope to advance Indigenous child health and welfare policy goals.Keywords: Quantitative data and research, Indigenous research goals, Indigenous child welfare, policy
“Diagnosis as a Naming Ceremony: Caution Warranted in Use of the DSM-IV with Canadian Aboriginal Peoples”
No full textThe Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th is the primary tool for diagnosis of mental disorders used in the field of mental health. Despite the widespread use of the DSM-IV there are limits to its applications, particularly with Canadian Aboriginal people. This paper draws parallels between the process of diagnosis and an Aboriginal naming ceremony used by the Coast-Salish people in British Columbia. Caution is suggested when applying Western based diagnoses to Aboriginal people due to the lack of cultural relevance and recommendations are made for appropriate use. Edition (DSM-IV; APA, 1994
Case Study of the Development of the 1998 Tribal State Agreement in Minnesota
No full textThis paper focuses on a recent qualitative study of the 1998 Indian Child Welfare Tribal State Agreement in Minnesota. The purpose of this study was to document the history of how American Indian women initiated legislative changes at the state level to strengthen the Indian Child Welfare law. This paper will identify the process used by these women and an American Indian workgroup and document the workgroup’s recommendations for other states and tribes interested in creating similar agreements. Keywords: Indigenous women, legislative changes, Indian Child Welfare law
Narrative as Lived Experience
No full textMy concern is these serious issues will continue to worsen, as a domino effect that our Ancestors have warned us of in their Prophecies (Arvol Looking Horse, May 2010). Aboriginal peoples have walked a long way through a landscape of loss and determination since early contact with Europeans. Today Indigenous authors, healers and spokespeople are asking our people to awaken fully and begin the process of reviving and practicing the seven sacred values that guided our ancestors and ensured that we might live today. The Prophesies and Creation stories contain the encouragement our people need to unburden themselves of deeply embedded historic trauma and loss. We have work to do; to tell our own stories, to actively participate in rescripting the narrative of our lives and representations, and to do this in our own voices (Nissley, 2009). This paper is a narrative of the historic challenges that have shadowed the many since ‘his-story’ began interspersed with the story of my own lived experience. Key Words: Historic Trauma, Complex PTSD, Narrative, Story Telling, Prophesy, Seven Sacred Values, Residential Schools, Cultural Hypocrisy, Identity, Healing, Youth, Victorizing
“The Culture of Strengths Makes Them Feel Valued and Competent: Aboriginal Children, Child Welfare, and a School Strengths Intervention”
No full textSchools are an important community partner in providing structural supports and wrap around services for children involved with the child welfare system. In this paper, we discuss the implementation of a culturally sensitive strengths-based intervention approach within an elementary school and its value to Aboriginal children. This article discusses the theoretical foundation of the strengths intervention approach and provides a description of a strength assessment tool as well as the implementation of the intervention with specific relevance to Aboriginal students involved with the child welfare system. Two case studies are presented, which illustrate the value of the strengths approach for individual students