The Culture of Strengths Makes Them Feel Valued and Competent: Aboriginal Children, Child Welfare, and a School Strengths Intervention

Schools are an important community partner in providing structural supports and wrap around services for children involved with the child welfare system. In this paper, we discuss the implementation of a culturally sensitive strengths-based intervention approach within an elementary school and its value to Aboriginal children. This article discusses the theoretical foundation of the strengths intervention approach and provides a description of a strength assessment tool as well as the implementation of the intervention with specific relevance to Aboriginal students involved with the child welfare system. Two case studies are presented, which illustrate the value of the strengths approach for individual students.

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Exploring Alternate Explanations for Agency-Level Effects in Placement Decisions Regarding Aboriginal Children

Decision-Making and Judgment in Child Welfare and Protection ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190059538.003.0010 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 215-234

Author(s):

Barbara A. Fallon ◽

John D. Fluke ◽

Martin Chabot ◽

Cindy Blackstock ◽

Vandna Sinha ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Child Welfare ◽

First Nations ◽

Organizational Factors ◽

Child Welfare System ◽

Welfare System ◽

Provincial Government ◽

Organizational Level ◽

Placement Decisions ◽

Aboriginal Children

This chapter summarizes a series of published papers that used data from the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS) to explore the influence of case and organizational characteristics on decisions to place Aboriginal children in out-of-home placements. The premise of the analyses was that these influences were consistent with the framework of the Decision-Making Ecology. In Canada, Aboriginal children are overrepresented at all points of child welfare decision-making: investigation, substantiation, and placement in out-of-home care. Case factors accounting for the overrepresentation of Aboriginal children at all service points in the child welfare system include poverty, poor housing, and substance misuse, and these factors, when coupled with inequitable resources for First Nations children residing on reserves, result in the overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in the Canadian child welfare system. For this study, the authors examine case characteristics and organizational factors in a multilevel context, hypothesizing that children are more likely to be placed out of home in agencies that serve a relatively high proportion of Aboriginal children. According to the statistical models presented, the most important of these factors is whether the provincial government operates the child welfare agency. As with the proportion of Aboriginal children on the caseload, the risk of a child being placed is greater in government-run agencies compared to agencies operated by private funders. Further analysis needs to be conducted to fully understand individual- and organizational-level variables that may influence /decisions regarding placement of Aboriginal children.

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Pathways to the Overrepresentation of Aboriginal Children in Canada’s Child Welfare System

Social Service Review ◽

10.1086/424545 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 78 (4) ◽

pp. 577-600 ◽

Cited By ~ 111

Author(s):

Nico Trocmé ◽

Della Knoke ◽

Cindy Blackstock

Keyword(s):

Child Welfare ◽

Child Welfare System ◽

Welfare System ◽

Aboriginal Children

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Study on Aboriginal Children and the Child Welfare System

The Aboriginal Child at School ◽

10.1017/s0310582200012098 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 59-60 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Keyword(s):

Child Welfare ◽

Child Welfare System ◽

Welfare System ◽

Aboriginal Children

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The intersection and parallels of Aboriginal peoples’ and racialized migrants’ experiences of colonialism and child welfare in Canada

International Social Work ◽

10.1177/0020872819897757 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 002087281989775

Author(s):

Jennifer Ma

Keyword(s):

Comparative Analysis ◽

Child Welfare ◽

Child Welfare System ◽

Welfare System ◽

Aboriginal Peoples ◽

Aboriginal Children

Aboriginal children are chronically overrepresented across all points in the child welfare system in Canada. Parallels between the racialized migrant experience and the injustices experienced by Aboriginal peoples are reviewed, starting with the development of Canada as a nation and reviewing colonialism and racism as it relates to Aboriginal peoples’ and racialized migrants’ experiences with child welfare. This comparative analysis will illuminate how injustices continue to be reproduced, focusing on the child welfare system, as part of the devastating effects that colonization has on Aboriginal peoples, but also as evidence of colonization being reproduced through current discriminatory legislation and practices.

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