First Nation takes over province’s largest youth services agency, a first for a Manitoba non-profit agency

Manitoba’s largest youth services agency has transferred its governance to a northern First Nation, a first, they say, for non-profits in the province.

The Link: Youth and Family Supports, which provides shelter services, therapy programming and other resources, was formally handed off to Brokenhead First Nation’s government in a celebratory gathering Friday.

Brokenhead Chief Gordon Bluesky said taking over the 96-year-old organization’s governance gives his community a chance to support the thousands of people The Link serves yearly, more than 70 per cent of whom are Indigenous.

Those clients include members of Brokenhead, the majority of whom live in Winnipeg.

“It’s very hard for us to provide services for off-reserve community members,” Bluesky said Friday.

“But now that we have an organization like this that’s already set up to support youth, to support families across Winnipeg… This is just another resource for our people, and for sure, my community members to come and start taking advantage of.”

Bluesky said while the First Nation plans to “continue with operations as is” for now, it has appointed three new board members; two of them have positions within Jordan’s Principle.

Jordan’s Principle is a child-first and needs-based principle that applies equally to all First Nations children living on or off-reserve, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs website explains.

It ensures there is no denial or delay for First Nations children in receiving essential public services that are available to all other children by having the government department of first contact pay for the service.

The program is named for Jordan River Anderson, a boy from Norway House Cree Nation born with multiple disabilities. He died in a hospital bed in 2005, having waited two years for home care while Ottawa and the Manitoba government argued over who’d pay for his care and medical equipment that would allow him to leave the hospital.

The Link’s board chair, Candace Olson, said it was the first time in Manitoba that an organization such as hers has been repatriated to a First Nation.

“This is history in Manitoba, and this is history in Canada,” she said. “It’s a first in the field of child and youth care, and we are so excited to be the ones moving forward with this.”

The Link was largely funded by the Manitoba government and Child and Family Services in the 2024-25 fiscal year, both providing a combined 94 per cent of the organization’s $24 million in revenue.

Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine called the shift in ownership an example of decolonization in action.

“This is symbolic of giving land back… the path to decolonizing, I’m just going to say child welfare in its totality, is a brave path,” she said.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca