Indigenous child welfare
Canada has a decentralized child welfare system that consists of 13 Canadian provincial and territorial child welfare systems. In addition, there exists Métis, First Nations and urban Indigenous child and family service agencies that are to varying degrees affected by federal policies and funding models.
Most commonly, Indigenous child welfare agencies have signed agreements with either the federal or both the federal and provincial governments that authorizes them to provide the full range of child protection services and receive federal funding to do so.
For more information about First Nations child welfare, see Denouncing the Continued Overrepresentation of First Nations Children in Canadian Child Welfare.
For information on the First Nations human rights complaint case against the federal government for under-funding child welfare services on-reserve: I am a witness.
| Title | Authors | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Supreme Court of Canada’s Reference re An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families: What Indigenous Peoples and Governments Need to Know | Bissett, T. |
2025 |
| Balancing Immediate Protection and Long-Term Well-Being | Nico Trocmé and Cindy Blackstock |
2025 |
| Legislation, Regulation and Soft Law | Bissett, T. |
2025 |
| What is Child Sexual Abuse? | Delphine Collin-Vézina |
2025 |
| What is Children’s Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence? | Tara Black Cindy Blackstock |
2025 |
| Assessing a measure of organizational environment among Indigenous child welfare agencies | 2024 | |
| Indigenous Child Wellness:: A Scoping Review of Best Practices with Initial Advising from Indigenous Community Members on Contextual Considerations and Next Steps | Levasseur-Puhach, Sydney & Bonin, Lynette & Hunter, Sandra & Roos, Leslie. |
2024 |
| Loving Our Children: Finding What Works for First Nations Families | Blackstock, C., Trocmé, N., & Sullivan, S. |
2024 |
| The Breath of Life: First Nations Knowledge | Cindy Blackstock
|
2024 |
| The Outcomes of Indigenous Youth Aging Out of Care and Exiting Care in Canada | Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work & the Association of Native Child and Family Services Agencies of Ontario (ANCFSAO) This work is done in collaboration with or funded by Making the Shift, a member of the Networks of Centres of Excellence Canada Program. Making the Shift is funded by the Government of Canada’s Networks of Centres of Excellence program. The opinions and interpretations in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Government of Canada. |
2024 |