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.

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Title Authors Year
Child characteristics in on reserve investigations involving First Nations children aged 0-17 in Canada in 2019

Fallon, Barbara 
Joh-Carnella, Nicolette
Saint-Girons, Marie 
Livingston, Eliza

2022
Indigenous Service Provider Perspectives of an Online Education Module to Support Safe Clinical Encounters about Family Violence in Canada

Wekerle, C., McQueen, K. C. D., Barker, B., Acai, A., Smith, S., Allice, I., & Kimber, M

2022
Interventions for the Prevention of Family Violence in Indigenous Populations Policy Brief

Sistovaris, M., Fallon, B., & Sansone, G.

2022
Investigation and placement types in off reserve investigations involving First Nations children aged 0-17 in Canada in 2019

Fallon, Barbara 
Joh-Carnella, Nicolette
Saint-Girons, Marie 
Livingston, Eliza

2022
Ontario’s child welfare system

Petrella, Alessia 

Trocmé, Nico

2022
Parent-Child Separations and Mental Health among First Nations and Métis Peoples in Canada: Links to Intergenerational Residential School Attendance

McQuaid, R. J.

Schwartz, F. D.

Blackstock, C. 

Matheson, K.

Anisman, H.

Bombay, A. 

2022
Parenting Capacity Assessments and Indigenous Parents in Canada: Fact Sheet

Sistovaris, M., Fallon, B., Sajedinejad, S., & Sansone, G. 

2022
Parenting Capacity Assessments, The Child Welfare Toolkit, Brief #4

Milne, C., Fallon, B., Valachi, A., Baldridge, D., Gillanders, A Kamal, I., Medhekar, A., & Hecht, M

2022
Quebec's child welfare system

Tremblett, Sarah

Trocmé, Nico

Delaye, Ashleigh

2022
The Child Welfare Toolkit. The "Without Notice Removal". Brief #2

Cheryl Milne & Barbara Fallon (Co-Investigators), Alina Valachi, David Baldridge, Alison Gillanders, Imran Kamal

2022