Unique juvenile group home setting a successful future

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"We try to do is be role models for the kids that we take in, and all the staff we hire are hired as role models. Each kid takes whatever they want to learn from the different staff. They all have their own assigned staff to discuss things with, to grow with, and to must learn from, but all the other staff are always open."This is the basic philosophy of the Eagle's Nest Group Home on the Saddle lake Reserve, the only juvenile group home on a reserve wholly funded by Indian Affairs.

Sharon Whiskeyjack, co-ordinator of the group home, says, the home, which was opened in May, 1984, also gives the kids that pass through it an opportunity to learn the skills to live on their own by teaching them how to budget, cook and clean up, and how to look for jobs and fill out resumes.

Violet Amyotte, an original advocator for the group home, says that the need for the group home was determined by the number of children which were being taken into custody, and put in foster care outside the reserve.

A social services board which was on the reserve at the time the need was identified was notified of the situation. A group was then set up as a resource committee to investigate the possibility of setting up a group home for juveniles.

At this point Reg Dumont and Amyotte were commissioned to structure a program for the group home. Proposals were written to gain capital costs, funding was secured to build the home, and finally, an agreement was reached in regard to per diem payments.

Whiskeyjack says that a lot of the kids who enter the group home are being taken from foster homes and being kept on the reserve. Others are taken from extended families (i.e. grandparents) when it comes apparent that a problem has arisen. Whiskeyjack adds that the Eagle's Nest Group Home attempts to bring the family together if they are having problems.

The staff at the Eagle's Nest come from a Native community background and have been involved with social services in one way or another. Most have some form of counselling skills, or take counselling training as they work.

Eagle's Nest provides a positive cultural upbringing to the children in its care and has a battery of volunteers to bring the Native culture and understanding to their children.

Most of the children come from the immediate area of Saddle Lake and Goodfish Lake, and get along with the staff and volunteers from the community.

The staffing of Eagle's Nest is done by Whiskeyjack in consultation with a committee and a personnel director.

While the children are in Eagle's Nest they are required to attend school or have to be entered in some sort of day program. In their spare time the residents are encouraged to participate in a variety of sports, survival camps, religious festivals, powwows, and round dances. In the two years it's been open, Eagle's Nest Group Home has had a number of clients return to their parents or foster home, or go out on their own without returning to the group home.

On that scale, one might consider this unique group home setting a success, and hope for the future of the children that pass through the doors of the home.