Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Research

Key Learnings Around Integrating Calls for Justice into Delegated Aboriginal Agency Programs and Services

Abstract

Our research project: “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG): Key Learnings Around Integrating Calls for Justice into Delegated Aboriginal Agency Programs and Services” is a research study based on the Social Work and Child Welfare related Calls for Justice that resulted from the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Children Final Report in 2019. This report derived from a national inquiry in regards to systemic forms of violence that Inuit, Métis, and First Nations women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA1 people experience in Canada and I recommended 231 calls for justice, recommending specific actions governments, institutions, service providers and industries needed to take to better ensure the safety of Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA peoples in all programs and services. This Final Report is a result of collaborative research completed by UBC students Jennifer Ortman, and Frances Wells, along with sponsors, Lori Mason and Jennifer McMillan from the Ministry of Children and Family Development and from the BC Aboriginal Childcare Society. This project also included input and direction from Delegated Aboriginal Agencies, the MMIWG Steering Committee, the Director’s Forum, and from MCFD Aboriginal Policy and Practice Framework Representatives Rhonda Ducharme and Judy Green. The goal of our research was to find out what was happening in the front lines of child welfare in response to these calls for justice, particularly in relation to Delegated Aboriginal Agencies.

The research question we then developed to fulfill our research goal was: “How are Delegated Aboriginal Agencies providing culturally safe services; alternatives to removal promoting intact community and cultural connections; supports for youth transitioning to adulthood; and ensuring the safety of Indigenous women, children and LGBTQ2S+ in all programs and services provided”. It was our hope that at the end of this research project, we would be able to have enough information to guide us on what more needs to be done or needs to be changed for child welfare agencies so that the safety of Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA1 peoples could be better encouraged and promised within child welfare services. In order for us to answer these questions, we had to recognize and acknowledge the importance of the need for a Post-Colonial Theoretical Orientation along with a Trauma Informed Practice and an Indigenous framework while performing our research. The reason that a Post-Colonial Theoretical approach was recognized as a key component needed in our research processes was that we wanted to ensure we were not re-enacting colonial processes that would harm our research participants and we also wanted to ensure that we were not overpowering Indigenous voices with our own.

We decided to complete our research through utilizing a focus group consisting of executive directors and program managers from each Delegated Aboriginal Agency in BC. Unfortunately, due to time constraints and other limitations, we were only able to gather participants from six out of twenty-four DAAs in BC. However, we found that the participants from the six agencies were able to provide us with copious amounts of information and we were able to achieve data saturation. We also conducted our research over the online platform of Zoom as a result of the current Coronavirus pandemic, and we utilized an Indigenous Framework along with Indigenous research methods throughout our research processes.

Our findings demonstrated the need for more funding for more services and for more staffing; a need for more C6 delegation among Delegated Aboriginal Agencies as C6 Delegation gives child welfare agencies the authority to remove children and to deeply assess safety concerns; more support for out of care options and more push for utilization of out of care options; more support for youth transitioning services, and more culturally safe/decolonizing services; as well there is a need for increased education for staff, caregivers and community members, particularly in relation to the needs of 2SLGBTQQIA children and youth, and adult’s needs; also out of care options placements need more support to be able to safely and appropriately care for their family members being placed in their homes.

Our recommendations are:

• Increased funding to support DAAs to obtain increased training to allow C6 delegation for DAA staff.

• Increased education and support for leadership to encourage the use of out of care options during times of removal.

• Increasing staffing initiatives to hire more staff of Indigenous decent and more staff who may identify as 2SLGBTQQIA peoples

• More funding to support youth transitioning services, and more culturally safe/preventative services

• More funding and education for staff, caregivers and community members, particularly in relation to the needs of 2SLGBTQQIA children and youth, and adult’s needs

• More funding and education to support staff members in learning about out of care placement needs.

  The reasons we have provided these recommendations are because many of the research participants expressed that they found that when they had extra funding, they were able to hire more staff and they were able to develop more preventative programs which in turn, they felt helped to prevent Indigenous children from coming into care, and also in turn better protected Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA peoples. More C6 delegation for DAAs would provide the agencies with more authority over when Indigenous children can be removed from their family homes or not be removed; as well C6 delegation would provide DAAs more opportunity to safely plan with extended family when removals are necessary. We also think that if there is increased education and support for leadership to encourage the use of out of care options, the rates for use of these options would increase.

  We think that more funding to support youth transitioning services such as housing services, and mental health and addiction services would be beneficial as many agencies identified housing and mental health and addiction resources as being scarce; more funding for culturally safe/preventative services would be useful as participants expressed that culturally relevant services provided service users with a greater sense of safety and relationality to services. As well, they expressed that preventative services were serving to reduce the number of children needing to come into care. We recommend more funding to increase education for staff, caregivers and community members, particularly in relation to the needs of 2SLGBTQQIA children and youth, and adult’s needs because participants expressed many staff and caregivers are failing to meet the needs of these youth and adults because of lack of understanding of their needs and inability to connect and relate and to support these peoples; and finally, we recommend more funding and education to support staff members in learning about Out of Care Placements needs as participants expressed these homes require unique supports as oftentimes, biological children in the home begin to require more support, and family tensions rise as family members take on responsibility for other family member’s children. It would be beneficial for staff to gain knowledge on how to more effectively support the out of care options families.