Gathering Presentations

2020 Aboriginal First Nation Signs of Safety Gathering Program

Description of the presentations with links to the recordings

07 Dec 2020

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Language

• English

Program

You can click for a PDF of the Gathering Program from the Downloads box on the right, or just view the schedule as listed below.

This Event was held online on the 7th of December 2020 at 11pm UTC+0

Elia, the home of Signs of Safety, is proud to be hosting this Gathering event for the second year, bringing together international Aboriginal-First Nations voices in child protection from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

We look forward to hearing from Aboriginal-First Nations leaders and practitioners and hope their connections can grow with the sharing of experience and learning across nations. Elia understands that the challenges faced by Aboriginal-First Nations leaders and practitioners can be immense and as we work in partnership we expect to stumble but nevertheless proceed with good heart and good intentions and to be humble and truthful about what we simply do not know.

Welcome and opening prayers

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Bringing the Grandmother’s vision to life in our practice

Ktunaxa Nation

Presented by: Jackie Brown, Director of Practice; Julie Birdstone, Ktunaxa Intake Supervisor and Jennifer Schmidt, Lower Kootenay Supervisor.

This presentation will highlight the journey Ktunaxa Kinbasket Child and Family Services has taken over the past 12 years, working to implement Signs of Safety throughout their agency. Director Jackie will share the most recent milestone of how the agency is taking on organisational alignment through the most recent updates on their case management tool. Julie will share her perspective of bringing the Ktunaxa Nation values to the forefront of the model development and how she has supported the work. Jennifer will share her perspective as a guardianship worker and current Supervisor around the significant changes in the KKCFS case management model to support the children in our case system, focusing on network building, cultural connections and the importance of all children understanding their story as part of the Truth and Reconciliation calls to action.

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Connecting children to culture through working relationships

Territory Families

Presented by: Denella Detourbet, Senior Aboriginal Practice Leader and Lorraine Martin, Aboriginal Practice Advisor, Territory Families, Housing and Communities.

Lorraine will present a case about a young person’s cultural care plan and the intention to reunify and maintain cultural connections with their family as they had lost contact since being in the care of the CEO for six years. Also to be discussed will be the success of the partnership in relation to the increase in the number of Aboriginal children in the care of relatives or kin, and look at the working relationships with our Aboriginal Community Controlled organisations. We will provide a short overview of the Aboriginal Carers Growing Up Aboriginal Children service model and TFHC commitment to increase the number of children in out-of- home-care placed with family and on country, and discuss the alignment of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle regarding the five elements — prevention, partnership, placement, participation and connection.

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Safety and healing through community and culture

Upper Sioux Community and Yellow Medicine County

Presented by: Kathleen Preuss, Upper Sioux Community Social Services Director and Teresa Kuehl, Yellow Medicine County Family Services Child Protection Specialist.

Upper Sioux Community Social Services and Yellow Medicine County Family Services utilised the Signs of Safety to support a Dakota mother who, after numerous child protection interventions, has begun healing because of her connections with her community and culture. The agencies will share what they learned working creatively together as a statutory authority with the Dakota community to help families and their networks increase safety and wellbeing with Indigenous families. The mother’s voice will be included in the presentation through an Appreciative Inquiry, where she will explain the significance for her sobriety of viewing herself as belonging in her community, and the difference belonging has had for her, her children and generations to come as this once isolated mother becomes a prominent member of her Tribal community.

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Words and Pictures story about pain, alcohol and drugs...and the love in our family

Dakota Ojibway Child and Family Services

Presented by: Doreen Moellenbeck-Dushnitsky, Executive Director; Carla McDonald, Signs of Safety Coordinator and Charles Marshall, Caseworker

The presentation will show how Dakota Ojibway Child and Family Services (DOCFS) is empowering the voices of children, families, and community to understand and respond to the child safety concerns. DOCFS’s mandate of ‘Taking care of our own’ is being brought to life through a mom’s Words and Pictures story that journeys through historical trauma and resilience, the current children protection concern, culture and language, and a vision of safety for her beloved daughter.

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Reflections and Close

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