Kinship Services Overview
Keeping Families Together
When children cannot be cared for safely by their parents, we look to other family members or people who are familiar to the child to provide a safe, nurturing home for as long as that child requires it. We call this Kinship Service.
There are two ways that a child can be placed in your home under Kinship Service;
1) Voluntary Service Agreement
The child’s parent signs an agreement with Family and Children’s Services placing the child with a kin service caregiver for a specific period of time. The child’s parent, the kin service caregiver and the workers involved will sit down and talk about what everyone is responsible for. The child’s parent has the right to make decisions about school and medical care.
2) Supervision Order
The Court may make an order to place the child with a kin service caregiver for a period of 4-12 months. The Court will give the child’s parent some things to work on during this time. Plans for visiting between the child and the parent will be ordered by the Court.
Kinship Service (Out of care) occurs when the society deems a child to be in need of protection and a plan is proposed to place the child, who is not admitted into the care of a society with a kinship care giver , defined as a relative, extended family member or community member.
Our mission is to support the wellbeing of children and youth by providing them with the opportunity to grow and develop within their natural family unit and community. By empowering families and community members we can provide a safe and stable home environment where children can maintain a sense of belonging and best achieve his/ her full potential.
We facilitate a safe and nurturing home environment for children in our community by identifying, assessing and empowering kinship care givers.
We work collaboratively with children, youth, families, collaterals, extended family members and other community members to help the child/ren maintain long-lasting and meaningful relationships.
Keeping Families Together
- Kinship service placement can be used when the family voluntarily make a plan together to care for the child
- The relationship between the child/children and kinship caregiver is a natural placement to the child
- The Kinship caregiver may have already provided informal care to the child/children
- Kinship service placement can be used for permanency through a custody order (sec 57)
- Kinship services allows the care provider to be responsible for making decisions for the child, where there is a Supervision order in place
- The kinship caregivers have an understanding of the child’s identity and respects their culture
For more information on this programme please contact us at 613 498-2100 or 613 264 9991 or via email.