MANITOBA'S child welfare system took a step towards a new way of doing things Thursday with the opening of a new family resource centre in St. Boniface.
It is the first of two centres to be opened in Winnipeg, staffed by 40 workers to help the families who don't get served well by the child welfare system because they aren't needy enough.
"Low-risk families, because they don't need much, don't get our attention," said Sonia Prevost-Derbecker, the executive director of the All-Nations Co-ordinated Response Network (ANCR). "Then they don't get the help they need and eventually they become high risk and we have an emergency."
Inability to address the needs of families unless there is a crisis was one of the sharpest criticisms of Manitoba's child welfare system uncovered in the recent series on the system in the Free Press.
The series detailed a system with social workers so overburdened they can't properly monitor the high-risk kids in their caseloads, let alone get to families who aren't in a crisis.
It contributes to a high number of kids in care and difficulty working with families to keep them together or help them reunite after a crisis.
Prevost-Derbecker says the new resource centre will help families who, with a bit of help, can get back on track.
"We're stepping outside the box here," she said. "The system has struggled over the years (with prevention). This is part of the solution."
The St. Boniface centre will include 20 support workers who will go out and help people in their homes; another 20 will work in the centre itself.
Programs offered will include parenting supports, anger management and family budget training. Assistance could also be given, says Prevost-Derbecker, so a parent needing help for an addiction can get it without that addiction getting to the point where a child has to be apprehended.
The second resource centre will be in the West End, but an opening date for it has not yet been set. ANCR is the new centralized intake unit for child and family services in Winnipeg.
mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
PREVIOUS
