All governments

Justice

Recommendation 58: We call upon all governments to resource research on men who commit violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Health and wellness service providers

Recommendation 63: We call upon all governments and health service providers to provide necessary resources, including funding, to support the revitalization of Indigenous health, wellness, and child and Elder care practices. For healing, this includes teachings that are land based and about harvesting and the use of Indigenous medicines for both ceremony and health issues. This may also include: matriarchal teachings on midwifery and postnatal care for both woman and child; early childhood health care; palliative care; Elder care and care homes to keep Elders in their home communities as valued Knowledge Keepers; and other measures. Specific programs may include but are not limited to correctional facilities, healing centres, hospitals, and rehabilitation centres.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Health and wellness service providers

Recommendation 68: We call upon all health service providers to develop and implement awareness and education programs for Indigenous children and youth on the issue of grooming for exploitation and sexual exploitation.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Educators

Recommendation 83: We call upon all educational service providers to develop and implement awareness and education programs for Indigenous children and youth on the issue of grooming for exploitation and sexual exploitation.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Social workers and those implicated in child welfare

Recommendation 84: We call upon all federal, provincial, and territorial governments to recognize Indigenous self-determination and inherent jurisdiction over child welfare. Indigenous governments and leaders have a positive obligation to assert jurisdiction in this area. We further assert that it is the responsibility of Indigenous governments to take a role in intervening, advocating, and supporting their members impacted by the child welfare system, even when not exercising jurisdiction to provide services through Indigenous agencies.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Social workers and those implicated in child welfare

Recommendation 85: We call upon on all governments, including Indigenous governments, to transform current child welfare systems fundamentally so that Indigenous communities have control over the design and delivery of services for their families and children. These services must be adequately funded and resourced to ensure better support for families and communities to keep children in their family homes.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Social workers and those implicated in child welfare

Recommendation 86: We call upon all governments and Indigenous organizations to develop and apply a definition of “best interests of the child” based on distinct Indigenous perspectives, world views, needs, and priorities, including the perspective of Indigenous children and youth. The primary focus and objective of all child and family services agencies must be upholding and protecting the rights of the child through ensuring the health and well-being of children, their families, and communities, and family unification and reunification.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Social workers and those implicated in child welfare

Recommendation 87: We call upon all governments to prohibit the apprehension of children on the basis of poverty and cultural bias. All governments must resolve issues of poverty, inadequate and substandard housing, and lack of financial support for families, and increase food security to ensure that Indigenous families can succeed.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Social workers and those implicated in child welfare

Recommendation 88: We call upon all levels of government for financial supports and resources to be provided so that family or community members of children of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people are capable of caring for the children left behind. Further, all governments must ensure the availability and accessibility of specialized care, such as grief, loss, trauma, and other required services, for children left behind who are in care due to the murder or disappearance of their caregiver.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Social workers and those implicated in child welfare

Recommendation 89: We call upon all governments and child welfare services to ensure that, in cases where apprehension is not avoidable, child welfare services prioritize and ensure that a family member or members, or a close community member, assumes care of Indigenous children. The caregivers should be eligible for financial supports equal to an amount that might otherwise be paid to a foster family, and will not have other government financial support or benefits removed or reduced by virtue of receiving additional financial supports for the purpose of caring for the child. This is particularly the case for children who lose their mothers to violence or to institutionalization and are left behind, needing family and belonging to heal.