HUU-AY-AHT FIRST NATIONS SOCIAL SERVICES PROJECT: Safe, Healthy and Connected, Bringing Huu-Ay-Aht Children Home
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HUU-AY-AHT FIRST NATIONS SOCIAL SERVICES PROJECT: Safe, Healthy and Connected, Bringing Huu-ay-aht Children Home Report of the Social Services Panel May 31, 2017 Care For Baby, - Monitoring and oversight of programming -Baby welcoming ceremony, - quality assurance committee, -Baby welcoming and parental Nation-based support: - monitoring and oversight ofprogramming Elders and Families - implementation committee, - quality assurance committee, support kits - community development officer - implementation committee, care for the expectant - community development officer woman during pregnancy EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Ha’wiih Houses Huu-ay-aht children today are, like other indigenous children in BC, many times more likely to be taken away from their families and placed in to the foster care system than are non- indigenous children. Huu-ay-aht children are vulnerable under the legacies of the colonial INFANT and illegal taking of the Huu-ay-aht people’s lands and resources, Canada’s residential school s t a g e system, the 60s scoop, the continued systematic removal of children from their families into foster care by the provincial government, and the multi-generational impacts of the broken N C Y N A attachments and trauma that these government actions have brought to their parents, E G R NGE and grandparents. P CHA OR T F LYS ATA C YOUTH monitoring “bring our children home” overseeing The Huu-ay-aht First Nations government wishes to take focused and concerted action to “bring our children home” and to keep Huu-ay-aht children safe, healthy and connected to Baby Welcoming Ceremonies their families and their Huu-ay-aht culture and community. As part of this work, Huu-ay-aht awak c ma Hišuk ’ executive council appointed this independent panel to hear from the Huu-ay-aht community P Cultural Activities A R and research and interview external agencies, so as to provide Huu-ay-aht government with E N recommendations for concrete steps to be taken to improve outcomes for Huu-ay-aht children T S and families who are in, or at risk of being taken in, to the foster care system. We were deeply moved by the brave determination so many Huu-ay-aht adults and youth Food baskets Youth Engagement & A Youth Council showed by speaking to us, and to each other, about the pain, fear and powerlessness they Treatment+ Support have experienced in being separated from their families, both through residential school C and the foster care system. It was difficult for many to trust that it was safe to speak—both to ELDERS a r e YOUTH SUPPORTED BY LEGAL ADVOCATES + and PROTECTION SUPPORT WORKERS us as outsiders, and to other Huu-ay-aht community members. There was a real fear that by • Elder Training M o speaking about past experiences, or by asking for help today, people made themselves more— n • Roles and Responsibilities i t o r not less—vulnerable to having their families torn apart. This must be reversed: people need to i n Ha’wiih g know that their Nation is their advocate, and that their families, community and government Community Assigned will come together and will do all that they can to support vulnerable families and keep -develop an Elder Liaison Program: HFN Huu-ay-aht children and adults safe, healthy and connected to their home. Elders can liaise between citizens and primary & mental health care service. -provide training for Elders to We were also moved by the strength and love we saw in the Huu-ay-aht community. We heard move into this role. about the strong tradition of the Huu-ay-aht family—not the Eurocentric model of the nuclear family, but the Huu-ay-aht family—where one’s auntie is a second mother, one’s cousin a brother, and where grandparents, aunties and uncles will help care for and even raise children when parents call for that help. Several strong leaders in the Huu-ay-aht community today were raised in that way, when their parents called for that help. We also heard from Huu-ay-aht people who have come through great adversity—their own confrontations with addictions, violence and poverty—who, from the depths of their spirits, want to help other ADULT Huu-ay-aht people away from that pain, and to support today’s Huu-ay-aht children to be happy and safe. This resilience, love and strength must be harnessed. Report of the Social Services Panel | May 31, 2017 1 children. We are recommending the Huu-ay-aht government be a leader in this area and make a Our recommendations focus on building front line, wrap around supports for Huu-ay-aht legislated long- term commitment to dedicated funding for broad front line services to support people throughout their lifetimes. One cannot help children without supporting what is children and families. most important to children: their families. This means providing their parents the support they need to be parents—and that support takes many forms. It also means providing Huu-ay-aht will need to look and build both outward and inward. Looking outward, the Nation formal support to grandparents, family and community members who assist in care, and to must continue to engage with other First Nations who are working to improve outcomes for their elders who can, with support and education, work as trusted liaisons to ensure services and own children and families, and must renegotiate properly resourced and structured relationships supports are reaching families who need them. Ultimately, the best way to provide safety for with provincial and federal agencies so that all three governments work in partnership for the Huu-ay-aht children is to provide a path for healing from multiple-generational trauma for well-being of Huu-ay-aht children and families. As a self-governing Nation, Huu-ay-aht is very all who need it. well positioned to do so. Looking inward, the Nation and Ha’wiih must ensure cultural activities are more frequently and consistently available to Huu-ay-aht people—we heard of a hunger for Adjustments in children’s care should broaden their attachments, not break them. There that. And fundamentally, looking inward, Huu-ay-aht citizens must identify how they can help will be times when parents need to call for help, as they always have. When this happens, support families that struggle, and must off er themselves to the responsibilities of caring for children must see how many people love them and are ready to move in to support and care children and parents who need it. for them. This requires advance planning and support—which the Nation can and must provide. Huu-ay-aht needs to build structured and resourced circles of protection around It has been our honour to work on this important project with and for the Huu-ay-aht First its children and families so that decision making happens with and by children and families Nations. We hereby submit this report with recommendations to Huu-ay-aht Executive Council. fi rst, supported by extended families, House Groups and the Nation. Through these circles of protection, decision making shifts away from Court-sanctioned removal decisions May 31, 2017 by external agencies. We emphasize the need to do everything possible to provide whatever assistance is necessary well in advance of crisis in a family: wrap around support services; advance planning with <original signed by> <original signed by> parents, children, family and even House Groups in case parents need to call for help; involving youth in planning and decision-making by staking a clear place for their agency, so _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ that they are not left lost and powerless. Life-long, wrap around support means that no one Lydia Hwitsum Kim Baird “ages out of care” in the Huu-ay-aht community. We also emphasize the need to provide strong transitional supports to families. We heard <original signed by> <original signed by> again and again that the most vulnerable points for families were in the times of transition— transitions when children have been temporarily taken into care, or when they have returned _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ home, or transition after a parent has undertaken addiction treatment. Parents can suff er Myles Blank Maegen Giltrow panic, loss of hope and purpose when children are taken; children suff er fear, anxiety and confusion; and upon return, it is very diffi cult to establish the sorts of routines that rebuild confi dence, security and attachment. Transitional supports such as counseling, co-parenting and household support, anti- violence education, safe houses and transitional housing are all necessary. We have emphasized the need to dedicate resources to the front-line: this is a child and family focused approach, and it is informed by numerous reports and recommendations that have preceded this project. Over and over again resources and restructuring eff orts have been focused at high levels and senior management in the provincial child welfare system, while the front lines have been systematically under-resourced and have failed to serve indigenous 2 HUU-AY-AHT FIRST NATIONS SOCIAL SERVICES PROJECT: Safe, Healthy and Connected, Bringing Huu-ay-aht Children Home Report of the Social Services Panel | May 31, 2017 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Adoption ......................................................................................................................................33 Current provisions and requirements ...............................................................................33 Current law, policy and administration