Changing the Ontario Child Welfare System to Better Serve African Canadians
One Vision One Voice is a program led by the African Canadian community. It is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services through the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies and addresses the overrepresentation and experiences of disparities faced by African Canadians after coming into contact with the child welfare system.
One Vision One Voice (OVOV) was launched in 2015 and included three project phases, until it received annual, ongoing funding in 2021.
The program focuses on addressing anti-Black racism and supporting improved outcomes and equitable services for African Canadian children, youth, and families in Ontario’s child welfare system. This includes through the development of culturally appropriate, family-centred services; anti-Black racism training; and leadership and networking opportunities for African Canadian youth and child welfare staff. OVOV is taking a cross-sectoral approach, with attention placed on how multiple systems, particularly education, police, and healthcare, interact to create and maintain racial disproportionality and disparities in child welfare.
Some of the program priorities include:
- African Canadian Service Delivery Model: A trauma informed practice that aligns with the OVOV 11 Race Equity Practices. It focuses on working collaboratively with agencies, community stakeholders, and equity experts to provide services that are culturally reflexive and responsive to African Canadian families.
- African Canadian Leadership Mentorship Program: A mentorship program for child welfare staff that focuses on dismantling anti-Black racism within organizational structures and ensuring that African Canadian staff have pathways to leadership roles through succession planning and mentoring.
One Vision One Voice (OVOV) welcomes child welfare redesign. Embedding equity approaches, frameworks, and policies into system redesign is critical to addressing overrepresentation and challenging oppressive structures and practices.
Child welfare redesign provides a critical opportunity to prioritize early intervention and use community-based prevention strategies and process mapping to strengthen families and respond to the needs of African Canadian children, youth, and families.
The Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, community stakeholders, child welfare agencies, and OACAS have responded to the urgent call to action expressed by African Canadian children, youth, and families to address the severe harm they have experienced within child welfare through consistent and on-going funding of the OVOV program.
For decades, African Canadian communities across the province have raised concerns about the overrepresentation of African Canadian children in care of Children’s Aid. African Canadian parents and families have also raised concerns about how they are treated by child welfare staff and the overall system.
Issues in Ontario reflect the issues raised by African Americans throughout the United States. Compared to their White counterparts, African Canadian children are:
- More likely to be referred to a Children’s Aid Society by educators, police, and medical professionals
- More likely to be removed from their homes
- Less likely to be returned to their families
- More likely to grow up in foster care without being adopted or finding another permanent home
The two key issues are:
- Disproportionality: the over- or under-representation of certain groups (e.g., racial) in a public child welfare agency relative to the group’s proportion in the general population.
- Disparity: when services to one segment of the community are allocated differently, such as an increased or decreased likelihood of entering or exiting the services system or care.
We Welcome Your Ongoing Feedback
Email: onevisiononevoice@oacas.org
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Join the conversation on social media through Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram by telling us how Ontario’s child welfare system can better serve the African Canadian population.
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Want to learn more about ONE VISION ONE VOICE?
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Meet Keishia Facey, Program Manager for OVOV. Have a question? Want to get involved? Contact Keishia at onevisiononevoice@oacas.org.
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What are the Race Equity Practices?
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Commit to courageous leadership.
It is the responsibility of the organization’s Board, Executive Director / Chief Executive Officer and senior management team to set the direction, specify organizational expectations, and allocate resources, lead conversations on anti-Black racism, spearhead anti-racism organizational change efforts, and engage the organization in courageous conversations if racial disproportionality and disparities are to be identified and addressed.
Collect and analyze data to measure racial disproportionality and disparities
Through the use of data, child welfare agencies are able to assess the extent of racial disproportionality and disparities, identify the underlying causes, as well as measure progress toward improving service outcomes.
Evaluate programs and monitor performance.
Ongoing program evaluation and performance monitoring allows organizations to understand which programs, services, and practices are working, the impact they have on African Canadian children, youth and families, and where changes are needed to achieve desired outcomes.
Allocate appropriate and dedicated resources.
When procuring services (e.g., group homes, outside paid resources, and mental health beds), each agency should include an assessment of the service provider’s ability to reflect and appropriately serve African Canadian children and youth in care and their complex needs.
Engage African Canadian parents and communities.
Child welfare agencies must develop ways of engaging parents and community members not only in the short term, but also with the goal of developing and maintaining relationships over the long term.
Engage and educate mandated referrers.
As the first stage in the child welfare continuum, mandated referrers can contribute to the overrepresentation of African Canadians in the child welfare system. As such, it is important that child welfare agencies analyze referral data and provide critical feedback and additional training to referral organizations and professionals as needed.
Establish effective internal complaint mechanisms.
African Canadian families involved with the child welfare system need to be informed of the complaints mechanisms available to them. Further, these mechanisms should be assessed to determine how well they serve the needs of and address the issues raised.
Enhance human resource management.
Within child welfare agencies, there is a need to ensure that African Canadian staff, and indeed all staff, are able to raise concerns as needed and advocate for changes to better serve African Canadians without fear of reprisal.
Provide daily supervision, ongoing training, and supports for staff, volunteers and caregivers.
Ensure agency staff, volunteers, and caregivers are well-trained in anti-racism, with a focus on anti-Black racism, and that they receive daily supervision that supports the application of this knowledge to support better outcomes for African Canadian children, youth and families.
Establish collaborations and partnerships.
Ensure ongoing engagement of African Canadian parents and the local African Canadian community to support the work of the child welfare agency and the success of African Canadian children, youth and families.
Strengthen the ability of caregivers to support African Canadian children and youth.
Child welfare agencies can support positive outcomes for African Canadian children and youth in care by placing them with kin as the first option and African Canadian families as the second option, as well as by ensuring caregivers are well trained, supported, and able to support the development of a strong and positive racial identity and the maintenance of cultural connections.
