Study Looks At Native Child Welfare Discrepancies

Study Looks At Native Child Welfare Discrepancies

Tuesday, July 08, 2008 at 14:35

 

 

A university professor in Victoria says First Nations children living in cities are having an easier time tapping certain resources than their counterparts on reserves.

 

Jessica Ball recently released a paper titled “Promoting Equity and Dignity for Aboriginal Children in Canada”.

 

Commissioned by an independent think-tank, the paper highlights the advantages urban Aboriginal people have when it comes to services and programming available to them.

 

For example, Ball points out that some band members have to move off-reserve to access things like speech language pathology for their children.

 

She also says if they move back on-reserve, they may lose that service because it is provided by the province.

 

Ball says one bright spot for kids on-reserve is the Aboriginal Headstart program.

 

She says the program is a model many government agencies could follow when providing services for reserve residents.

 

Ball adds it is unique in the way it melds components like language, nutrition, relationship-building and community development together under one roof.