February 2023
January 2023
Miigwetch RATE-MY-AGENT & Snap Up Real Estate for your donation
We greatly appreciate RATE-MY-AGENT and Snap Up Real Estate’s donation to our Native Youth Resource Centre (NYRC) Drop-in program located in Toronto’s west end. This program engages Indigenous youth who come to access services at the NYRC and this donation will contribute towards the underfunded Youth Drop-In and Outreach program activities which focusses on providing Indigenous youth with the skills, mentorship, and training they need to find and maintain housing and achieve their full potential.
October 2022
Thank you Bell Let’s Talk Community Fund!
We extend our deepest gratitude for your support of our “After Hours Mental Health and Crisis Support Telephone Service” at Native Child and Family Services of Toronto. Your funding has played a pivotal role in developing a vital service, allowing us to respond promptly to urgent community needs, especially during the challenging times of the pandemic.
Operating on weekdays from 5 pm to 12 am and on weekends/holidays from 9 am to 12 am, this telephone service provides immediate access to culture-based, trauma-informed mental health and crisis supports. Using the Medicine Wheel Model of service delivery, we address the spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental aspects of individuals in relation to self, family, and community.
Our dedicated staff, work diligently to de-escalate crisis situations and offer brief mental health services. Beyond crisis intervention, the service provides immediate referrals to our extensive range of in-house social services. These services encompass traditional Indigenous healing, housing support, diverse mental health and addictions services, family/domestic/intimate partner violence support programs, and anti-human trafficking programs.
We want to acknowledge and appreciate the transformative impact your support has had on the well-being of our community, allowing us to continue to provide Child Centered, Family Focused, and Community Driven services.
Miigwech | Kinanâskomitin | Thank You,
Media inquiries:
Freida Gladue (she/her)
Manager of Communications
Cell: 437-244-2816
Indigenous Child Welfare Reform Annual Report to Community
On Canada’s first NDTR, Native Child and Family Services of Toronto (NCFST) announced its commitment and dedication to decolonize Indigenous child welfare services in the city of Toronto. Over this past year, NCFST went through a critical examination of our child and family wellbeing services, including standards, service eligibility criteria, assessment tools, and current practices. This report addresses priorities for redesigning child welfare with the intent to help reduce the number of Indigenous children in care.
Many thanks to community who participated and help us every day in our continuous efforts to heal and find a better way forward.
Annual Report to Community
As part of our annual report back to community for 2022, our Quality Assurance and Decolonization team has prepared a separate report on the activities, reform and discussion ideas provided by both the Community Advisory Circle and various Staff consultation processes, including the Staff Advisory Group.
Transformation in Action at NCTST Report
September 2022
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation: Calls to Action
September 30th is Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (NDTR). On this day, we honour the children who never returned home from Canada’s residential schools along with the Survivors, as well as their families and communities. Remembering the painful and tragic history and acknowledging the ongoing impacts of residentials schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process with Indigenous peoples.
On Canada’s first NDTR, Native Child and Family Services of Toronto (NCFST) announced new commitments dedicated to continuing our journey to decolonize Indigenous child welfare services in the city of Toronto. Over the past year, NCFST went through a critical examination of our child and family well-being services, including standards, service eligibility criteria, assessment tools, and current practices.
NCFST invites you to join us on Friday, September 30th at 10 AM – 12 PM where we will provide a report back to community addressing the priorities for redesigning child welfare to help reduce the number of Indigenous children in care. During this virtual event we will have special guests join in the conversation around the importance of this report and we will share some exciting new announcements.
This event has passed, please find the recording: https://youtu.be/-QNmN1jxlcg
August 2022
Decolonizing Child Welfare Webinar Learning Series #6 – Recording
Webinar #6 of our Decolonizing Child Welfare Learning Series focused on the services we offer when vulnerable children must be removed from unsafe circumstances and placed in alternative care. In this webinar, we addressed some of the most crucial questions arising from the experience of Indigenous children and families with colonial child welfare systems.
- How do we meet the holistic needs of children and youth placed in care? What are the dimensions that guide us?
- How do we work alongside the Alternative caregivers to guide them, in helping our children and youth who are placed in their homes?
- How do we work to keep children connected with culture, family and community while they are in care?
- How do we work to keep children to family, extended family and community and culture?
We were joined by our host Terri Jaffe, and the following panelists:
- Rosary Spence, Cultural Resource Worker
- Jeffrey Schiffer, Executive Director
- Courtney Dorion, Children’s Services Supervisor
- Jama Maxie, Community Member
- Mark Atanasoff, Director of Quality Assurance & Decolonization
Click to access the presentation file
Below is the recorded webinar available for viewing.
Decolonizing Child Welfare Webinar Learning Series #6 – August 23, 2022
Webinar #6 of our Decolonizing Child Welfare Learning Series focuses on the services we offer when vulnerable children must be removed from unsafe circumstances and placed in alternative care. In this webinar, we address some of the most crucial questions arising from the experience of Indigenous children and families with colonial child welfare systems.
- How do we meet the holistic needs of children and youth placed in care? What are the dimensions that guide us?
- How do we work alongside the Alternative caregivers to guide them, in helping our children and youth who are placed in their homes?
- How do we work to keep children connected with culture, family and community while they are in care?
- How do we work to keep children to family, extended family and community and culture?
Please join us to explore the programs, resources we use, and the challenges we face as we work to help children to heal and stay connected to family, community and culture.
This event has passed, please find the recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M00RnANQRR0
June 2022
Decolonizing Child Welfare Webinar Learning Series #5 – Recording
Webinar #5 of our Decolonizing Child Welfare Learning Series focuses on Holistic Healing, Prevention and Early Intervention programs.
NCFST offers a wide array of programs available to children, youth, individuals and families open to all self-identifying community members, whether or not a child welfare file is currently open. Holistic programs seek to empower families to access resources and supports that can avert crises that may necessitate child welfare, and to support Youth in strengthening resilience and personal growth in contemporary cultural contexts.
In this webinar, we describe how our culturally grounded holistic healing and early intervention services work to provide the necessary resources and supports to families to prevent the need for Child and Family Wellbeing (child welfare) involvement or help families succeed so that time involved in child welfare services is minimized. We discuss how our services work together and work with external Indigenous and mainstream services to strengthen parents and children at risk of involvement in child welfare services or who are already working with child welfare services as part of their healing journey.
Join our host Terri Jaffe, and the following panelists:
- Pat Green, Knowledge Carrier;
- Daniella Robinson, Supervisor of Bekaadendang Program
- Jennifer Gray, Supervisor of Early Years
- Jessica Wilson, Manager of Early Years & Community Programs
- Julianna Meawasige, Supervisor of Aboriginal Child and Family Centre
- Siobhan McCarthy, Director of Holistic Services
- Jeffrey Schiffer, Executive Director;
- Mark Atanasoff, Director of Quality Assurance & Decolonization
Below is the recorded webinar available for viewing.
2021-2022 NCFST Annual Report
Native Child and Family Services of Toronto is pleased to release our 2021-2022 Annual Report. We would like to express our deep gratitude to our partners, funders, and community members for supporting us through this past year of uncertainty, growth, and development. Please read the detailed report on the progress our agency has made during such a challenging year.
In addition to our Annual Report, we have also released our Audited Financial Statements for 2021-2022.
This year’s Annual Report and Financial Statements, as well as previous Annual Reports and Financial Statements, are also available on our Policies and Publications page.
