The Ontario government through the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services is investing $650,000 to support the delivery of culturally appropriate services for Black children and youth in the child welfare system.
Phase three of the One Vision One Voice project will see the implementation of 11 Race Equality Practices throughout Ontario's Children's Aid Society (CAS) agencies.
Research shows Black families are more likely to be referred to the CAS by educators, police, and medical professionals and more likely to be removed from their homes. This separates families, causes trauma as children are removed from their communities, and harms youth.
The first phase of One Vision, One Voice was consultations in communities including Sudbury at town hall meetings in 2016, said Miranda Maunsell, child protection worker with the Children's Aid Society of the Districts of Sudbury and a member of the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies anti-oppression committee.
One of the things that came out of the consultation process was the need for race-based data, said Maunsell.
This was "something that wasn't done across the board in a consistent way agency to agency. So now, it is a directive we as an agency are required to collect that data from children and youth and allowing them to let us know how they self-identify (their race)," she said.
"It will help us with families, to better understand where the disproportionalities are; how we can be more responsive; what do we need to learn about community partners (that) we need to connect with to provide better service and better educate ourselves."
Developed with the guidance and leadership of Black communities, the One Vision One Voice practice framework calls for increasing the diversity of child welfare staff, ensuring staff are trained in culturally appropriate and anti-racism practices; ensuring children and youth are placed with family or caregivers from their community; and establishing a provincial advisory council and 11 advisory councils working with local CAS agencies.
The 11 Race Equity Practices are:
- Commitment to courageous leadership;
- Collect and analyze data to measure racial disproportionality and disparities;
- Evaluate programs and monitor performances;
- Allocate appropriate and dedicated resources;
- Engage Black parents and communities;
- Engage and educate mandated referrers;
- Establish effective internal complaint mechanisms;
- Enhance human resource management;
- Provide daily supervision, ongoing training, and supports for staff, volunteers and caregivers;
- Establish collaborations and partnerships, and;
- Strengthen the ability of caregivers to support Black children and youth.
"We cannot treat each child the same way, especially in a province as diverse as ours," said Jill Dunlop, associate minister of Children and Women's Issues in a news release. "This work is essential as we transform child welfare and work to build a better, more inclusive system."
One Vision, One Voice is part of an announcement in June regarding a plan to modernize the child welfare system to meet the needs of the province's diverse population.
