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
Placement decisions and disparities among aboriginal children: Further analysis of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect part A: Comparisons of the 1998 and 2003 surveys

Fallon, Barbara
Chabot, Martin
Fluke, John
Blackstock, Cindy
MacLaurin, Bruce
Tonmyr, Lil

2013
Social needs of Aboriginal foster parents

Brown, Jason D.
Ivanova, Viktoria
Mehta, Nisha
Skrodski, Donna
Gerrits, Julie

2013
Substantiating Neglect of First Nations and non-Aboriginal Children

Sinha, Vandna
Ellenbogen, Stephen
Trocmé, Nico

2013
The Legacy of Phoenix Sinclair: Achieving the Best for All Our Children - Volume 1

Hughes, Ted

2013
The Legacy of Phoenix Sinclair: Achieving the Best for All Our Children - Volume 2

Hughes, Ted

2013
The Legacy of Phoenix Sinclair: Achieving the Best for All Our Children - Volume 3: Appendices

Hughes, Ted

2013
The structure of Aboriginal child welfare in Canada

Sinha, Vandna
Kozlowski, Anna

2013
Understanding the investigation-stage overrepresentation of First Nations children in the child welfare system: An analysis of the First Nations component of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect 2008

Sinha, Vandna
Trocmé, Nico
Fallon, Barbara
MacLaurin, Bruce

2013
When Talk Trumped Service: A Decade of Lost Opportunity for Aboriginal Children and Youth in B.C.

British Columbia Representative for Children and Youth

2013
2011 Annual Report - Saskatchewan Children's Advocate Office

Saskatchewan Advocate for Children and Youth

2012