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.

Filter by Publication Date Range
Title Authors Sort descending Year
Prairie Forum Policy Summary 2006
Assessing a measure of organizational environment among Indigenous child welfare agencies 2024
Loving Our Children: Finding What Works for First Nations Families

Blackstock, C., Trocmé, N., & Sullivan, S.

2024
Briefing Document. Kiskisik Awasisak: Remember the Children. Understanding the Overrepresentation of First Nations Children in the Child Welfare System

Sinha, Vandna
Trocmé, Nico
Fallon, Barbara
MacLaurin, Bruce
Fast, Elizabeth
Prokop, Shelley Thomas
et al.

2011
Child maltreatment and intimate partner violence among Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians
Brownridge, Douglas A. 
Taillieu, Tamara
Afifi, Tracie
Chan, Ko Ling
Emery, Clifton
Lavoie, Josee
Elgar, Frank
2016
A culturally relevant measure of client satisfaction in child welfare services
Mundy, Crystal
Neufeld, Amanda N. 
Wells, Susan J
2016
Violence and resilience: a scoping review of treatment of mental health problems for Indigenous Youth
Toombs, Elaine
Houlding, Carolyn
Braunberger, Peter
Sawula, Erica
Wekerle, Christine
Mushquash, Chris
Drawson, Alexandra
2017
What are Child Welfare Prevention Services?

Trocmé, N., Sullivan, S. & Lefebvre, R.

2024
What is Child Neglect?

Trocmé, N., Sullivan, S. & Lefebvre, R.

2024
What is Child Physical Abuse?

Trocmé, N., Sullivan, S. & Lefebvre, R.

2024