(File photo/Darryl Dyck The Canadian Press)

By Glenn Hicks

family roots

PAGC plays role in foster family recruitment

Oct 16, 2019 | 4:47 PM

There’s always a need for foster families in the community and now an added impetus to find the best possible fit for children in light of the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

The Prince Albert Grand Council (PAGC) is working in partnership with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Social Services on a pilot project to recruit 50 First Nation and Métis families.

“We know that we can help,” PAGC Executive Director Al Ducharme told paNOW. “We know the ministry is doing their best to find First Nation and Métis families, but we think because of our deeper and closer connection to the community we can be of assistance, so we’re taking on that challenge.”

Ducharme stressed he was not in any way criticizing the families who take in foster children already, but wanted the PAGC to play a role in which “we can bring [children] closer to their actual culture and perhaps their own families, friends and neighbours.”

According to a media release, the PAGC’s Child Care and Education Centre’s Community Provider Program was developed in response to the TRC’s Calls for Action directed at child welfare reform, specifically affirming the right of First Nation governments to establish and maintain their own child welfare agencies.

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PAGC Grand Chief Brian Hardlotte said with Indigenous children disproportionately represented in the foster care system, the organization had “taken it as a responsibility to ensure children in need have culturally similar homes.”

Ducharme said the organization wanted to make a difference in children’s lives.

“[That’s] mostly by having them looked after or in care with people who relate to them or they relate to in a more culturally appropriate way.”

He added there were a lot of First Nations as part of the tribal council who had dealings in the city of P.A. who could be lobbied to become foster parents and he noted the PAGC also had 400 employees, so he hoped many of those would consider taking up the challenge of becoming a foster family.

In an email to paNOW the Ministry of Social Services said they were pleased the PAGC was leading the work to reach out to families from their member First Nations to ensure children were cared for in their home communities.

“We are all in this for the children,” Tobie Eberhardt, the executive director of Community Services with Child and Family Programs said. ”Recruiting Indigenous foster families means more home-based care placements that keep Indigenous children and youth connected to their roots and their cultural identity while we work towards family reunification.”

The recruitment process by the PAGC involves a phone and in-home consultation, an application with references, a criminal record check and a foster parent training program.

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow