Wish lists from the front line: band chief

REMOTE reserves need more control over child welfare, along with staff and training, says the chief of one of the province's poorest communities.

"Child welfare is now fully governed by the province. Each First Nation should have full jurisdiction over its own people, and there's still a lot of work that needs to be done there," said Chief David Harper of Garden Hill First Nation.

Harper's community is one of four Island Lake bands on the province's east side, one of the most remote and troubled. Last spring, almost 300 kids from the four reserves were in care.

Garden Hill is one of the northern bands experiencing friction with the Northern Authority, the provincially-mandated umbrella office that oversees six aboriginal child-welfare agencies.

Phoenix’s legacy takes shape

Manitoba will set a wretched record this year -- 8,000 abused and neglected kids, almost all of the aboriginal, will be in the care of child-welfare authorities or foster families.

Wish lists from the front line: Children’s advocate

MANITOBA'S Children's Advocate has a long list of ways the child welfare system could be improved.

One of the most critical, Billie Schibler says, is tracking what happens to children who age out of care.

"If they're 18 when they die, we would not receive that information from the chief medical examiner," says Schibler. "We know that statistically these children are the most vulnerable."

Traditionally, children are out of the child-welfare system (and on their own) when they turn 18. Sometimes, they can remain in care until they are 21.

Wish lists from the front line: Medical examiner

MANITOBA'S chief medical examiner says the most profound damage done to children doesn't result from a troubled child-welfare system.

For Dr. Thambirajah Balachandra, the root of the problem is poor parenting, exacerbated by atrocious living conditions on the province's remote reserves.

"If the parents are capable, if they don't drink or neglect their children, so much of this can be prevented."

He says addressing the root causes of family violence would save children.

Province hopes to import success from Minnesota

The Manitoba government has looked south to Minnesota for ways to improve its beleaguered child-welfare system.

There, the state government has rolled out a unique model that sees social workers working constructively with families in crisis to prevent children being removed and taken into care.

"I think there was a feeling the system wasn't working as well as it could," says Chuck Johnson, assistant commissioner for Child and Family Services at the Minnesota Department of Human Resources.

"We were really looking for a way to approach families -- a different way that saw us work more in partnership with families. We didn't want to be confrontational."

Mapping out Manitoba’s CFS system

A look at child-welfare agencies around the province.