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The Ktunaxa/Kinbasket Tribal Council of south eastern British Columbia are taking steps to ensure children remain in their communities.
A committee of representatives from the five communities (Columbia Lake, Shuswap, Lower Kootenay, St. Mary's and Tobacco Plains) has been struck to establish the Family and Child Services program.
Once implemented, the program will tackle control of child welfare and protection services.
"The aim of the program at this time is to seek the transfer of child protection from the province to the tribal council," said program co-ordinator Zahid Makhdoom.
The program is also a part of the ongoing treaty negotiations between B.C. First Nation communities and the provincial and federal governments. In addition to the program the tribal council has proclaimed 1995 to be the year of the Ktunaxa and Kinbasket Tribal Council administrator.
"This declaration underscores the concern and regard Ktunaxa and Kinbasket people have for their newest generation," she added.
Getting community control of child protection and welfare matters will help keep abused, neglected or otherwise hard-done-by children from being removed from their homes by provincial authorities and placed into foster homes in other communities.
Makhdoom said the program will see children removed and placed into homes of other family members or retained in their home communities.
"We will develop our own resources, such as kinship care homes, which cover a wider area of responsibilities and care than foster homes. It will help reconnect the child with the immediate family," he said.
In addition, the parent or parents from whom a child or children have been removed, will also receive counselling and help.
"We recognize child rearing is a family's business as well as a community's business," Makhdoom said.
The child protection and welfare program is just a tip of the iceberg, as support groups and other programs are also being eyed for changes.
""Other systemic issues will also be discussed," Makhdoom said, explaining juvenile delinquency programs, self help groups for teenage parents or for the parents of teenagers will be established.
To start the program, Makhdoom is planning to distribute a questionnaire to every home in the five communities, and have one member from each home fill it out.
The results of the questionnaire will help develop a comprehensive action program.
Community involvement is the biggest factor in a successful program, and in successfully negotiating the release of child and protection welfare responsibilities from the province, he said.
However, Makhdoom said he's confident the tribal council and the province will come to an agreement.
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