Block Funding of Child Maintenance: Using a Medicine Wheel Approach in the Protection of Children at Risk West Region Child & Family Services Inc. (WRCFS)
Today our First Nation Peoples require new and innovative approaches to support their families and provide their children with the care and affectionate attention that all humans desire to nourish their life.
Knowing this need, West Region Child and Family Services Ltd. developed a project that involves securing a new way to fund child maintenance cots, implementing more effective ways to provide for children in care, and re-directing savings to implement new and innovative approaches designed to support aboriginal families and prevent children form coming and /or remaining in care.
The framework used to develop the programs and services of this project was the Medicine Wheel, which provides for a comprehensive and holistic approach to the complex issue of aboriginal children at risk. While the objective remains protection of children at risk, the focus is on prevention and support services/prgorams, not apprehension, as the front line approach for these children and their families.
An agreement was negotiated with Indian Affairs, which provided for the block funding of child maintenance dollars, as opposed to an actual reimbursement of costs incurred for children in care. Existing arrangements for children in care were modified to make them more culturally relevant and cost-effective, seeking not only to hold the line on costs, but also to realize savings. Working with the First Nation communities, through local CFS Committees, led to the development and implementation of a variety of community-based services, programs and resources.
