Child Welfare In Canada

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Introduction During this semester I have learned a lot about different Aboriginal issues, and how they pertain to my future career as a social worker. For this final paper, I have chosen to explore the child welfare systems in Canada. This past summer, I worked as a summer student in child protection for the Ministry of Social Services. During this time, most of the parents and children I worked with were Aboriginals. I truly enjoyed the work I did during the summer, and would consider child protection as a future career option. This interest makes me want to explore some of the reasons Aboriginal children are so prevalent in the provincial child welfare system. During our class and through our journals, I learned that child protection services…show more content…
Prior to colonization, Aboriginal families and communities cared for children in accordance with their cultural practices, laws, and traditions (Sinha, 2013). The earliest relationships between Canada’s Aboriginal people and Europeans were often based on equality, friendship, learning, trade and autonomy. This early relationship quickly changed. A new colonial base emerged, as European goals shifted from trade to settlement and resource expropriation (Child and Youth Health, 2010). Colonialism became entrenched in society with the formation of the Indian Act and other colonial…show more content…
The history of Aboriginal child welfare in Canada shows how generations of children were taken away. As a social worker it is our job to look at how this affected the development of Aboriginal communities. Parents were never given the opportunity to use traditional parenting strategies, which means they were never given the opportunity to learn how to parent. This lack of opportunity to parent was passed down through generations and, with the effects of poverty, left many Aboriginal families without the skills or means to parent children. As a social worker it is important to recognize this history, and work towards offering preventative measures to break the cycle that has Aboriginal children ending up in care. During my time working in child protection, many Aboriginal parents were angry, and unwilling to work with their social worker. I think that this stems from the history surrounding child protection social workers and Aboriginal children. Parents today have most likely been a part of the social welfare system for years. As a new social worker, I hope to always recognize that Aboriginal parents are scared of what could happen to their families when they are mandated to work with social services. I hope to practice in a way that builds trust with my clients and a new way of resolving child protection
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