The program aimed at keeping Manitoba children out of CFS care

A report on an Indigenous-led program aimed at reunifying families has been unveiled.

It’s called Family Group Conferencing, and it’s based on a model practiced by Indigenous people in New Zealand with a goal of keeping kids with their families.

Marina, 32, a member of Sagkeeng First Nation who lives in Winnipeg, turned to the program, run by the Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre, for help.

She voluntarily agreed through Child and Family Services (CFS) to place her son in the care of family while she sought treatment for a methamphetamine addiction.

“Family Group Conferencing likes to keep the family together and keep the child in the family,” Marina said in an interview.

She was paired with a mentor and took part in culturally-based programming. With minimal interaction with CFS, she got to visit her son two times a week at the centre with her Family Group Conferencing mentor by her side.

“They played a huge role,” Marina said. “They were my main support. They pulled me out of my shell, I would say, because I was a turtle when I first came.”

A year and a half after starting the program, Marina was reunited with her son.

“I'm 32. I got him back on my 30th birthday,” she said. “My 30th birthday, they signed him over and closed my file.”

Family Group Conferencing is an Indigenous-led model practiced by the Māori people in New Zealand.

The program was first introduced to the Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre more than 20 years ago and has grown over time.

“In 2017 we had an opportunity to receive Winnipeg Foundation, the Province of Manitoba and federal money to triple the size of the Family Group Conference model,” said Diane Redsky, executive director of the Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre.

The release of an evaluation of the program, delayed by the pandemic, shows between April 2017 and March 2020, 233 families and 655 children were supported by the Family Group Conference model, which empowers families to make decisions and take actions to care for children.

During that time, 263 children were reunified with family and 141 were prevented from ending up in care in the first place.

“It creates an opportunity to have an ally in your corner if you are a parent who’s concerned about child welfare involvement,” Redsky said. “It also creates that mentor, that helper, that friend that knows the system."

At the end of March 2022, 9,196 children were in CFS care in Manitoba, down 654 from 2021. Ninety-one per cent are Indigenous.

The centre would like to see Family Group Conferencing become a standardized way of approaching child welfare in the province.

It’s a program that helped Marina to heal and restore the sacred bond between parent and child.

“I kept doing it because I wanted my son under my roof,” she said.

Redsky said the Family Group Conference program also saves taxpayers around $9 million annually by keeping kids with their families.

The report notes the program should be supported with ongoing sustainable funding and resources to meet the demands of the community.