After a couple of weeks of waiting, I finally have an interview scheduled with TWO Team Leaders from MCFD Aboriginal Services, the Intake and Investigation team and the Family Services team.
I'm so super excited! I really see myself working in this area. It just kills me how many Aboriginal children are in care. The other night we were watching the news on APTN, who stated that, nationally, the population of Aboriginal peoples in Canada is about 3-4%. However, about 60% of Aboriginal children are in care. Excuse my language, but W.T.F??
All I can say is that this is continuing colonialism...
but, then, what is it for the mainstream (white people?), for immigrants? Perhaps still colonization?
I know this isn't the accepted way to think about the oppression of poor white people, but bear with me for a minute...
Who are the people from the mainstream culture who have children in care? Poor people, drug users, people with mental illnesses. People who aren't coping well with the mainstream culture. People who maybe don't identify with "middle class values." People who need to be brought into line...
Sounds like colonization to me.
Reminds me of the terms of the Indian Act, once upon a (not so distant) time, when Aboriginals (men) could be enfranchised, could earn the right to vote, if they gave up any claim to their culture (if they STOPPED being 'Indians').
Pretty oppressive, no?
I don't think child protection workers are any less oppressive, despite Judge Gove's insistence that child protection workers hired by MCFD should be social workers, with a degree. Social Work education is HIGHLY anti-oppressive. Almost every class we take is centered around a social constructionist framework, around discourse analysis. This means continually looking for systemic, structural answers to individual problems seen through the lens of pathology by most other helping professionals.
A social worker stands with her client. A social worker starts where the client is. A social worker is a social change agent, is committed to professional ethical values such as social justice for all.
Especially for Aboriginal women and their children.
As someone who has adopted a child from MCFD, maybe if they allowed non-aboriginal families to adopt aboriginal children, with a culture plan of course, then there wouldn't be so many children in care. Instead we wait years to be matched with non-aboriginal children while there are children going from foster placement to foster placement. What is more important, the children in care, right now, getting their own forever family? Or is it more important to have policies that cater to the current political framework?
ReplyDeleteHi "anonymous" and thanks for your comment!
ReplyDeleteI hear you. Especially regarding children getting their own "forever families". Children need permanency, and foster care is always a second best option.
I don't know a lot about MCFD's adoption policies, but I do know that "policies that cater to the current political framework" are all MCFD will ever have... it IS, after all, a political institution. Ontario may be a bit better off, because they have Children's Aid Societies, which are separate institutions from the government. Thus, they have WAY fewer managers, and more front line workers.
I don't think their are so many Aboriginal children in care because MCFD won't adopt them out to non-Aboriginal families. I think too many Aboriginal children are removed from their homes in the first place.
Maybe if the current political framework valued more than making money, there would be money for social services, and these children and their families could be supported and developed such that Aboriginal children will be safe and supported in their own homes.
Alison,
ReplyDeleteI have read many of your blog posts about MCFD and I hope you can maintain your optimism after facing reality on the front lines. I must however disabuse you of the notion that Ontario is "better off, because they have Children's Aid Societies, which are separate institutions from the government." While they purport to be independent they fall under direction from the Ontario Government and for all intents and purposes are operated exactly the same as MCFD.
I'm not trying to rain on you parade, but your rosy view of SW as it relates to Child Protection will be hard to maintain once you start working for MCFD. Good luck.