THUNDER BAY - Indigenous women and children who are victims of violence now have somewhere to turn to help them navigate services and keep their families together.
Beendigen launched its new Circles of Care Program on Monday, which is designed to provide Indigenous women with cultural, mental, physical, and spiritual guidance and advocate on their behalf as they navigate various agencies such as child welfare.
Debra Vermette, executive director of Beendigen, said the program has been in development for a number of years and with the help of funding from the Ontario Native Women’s Association, the program began accepting its first clients last spring.
“Indigenous children represent a high rate in the child welfare system and one of Beendigen’s goals is to unite the family and Indigenous culture is very family orientated and we are working towards making that happen,” she said. “By having an advocate for this program and for the women is how we can best support them.”
Women can be referred to the Circles of Care Program by other agencies or refer themselves. Once a client, the women work with a family support worker who will advocate on their behalf and assist them in developing a case plan.
“I think it’s really important,” said Royleen Dupuis, the family support worker in the Circles of Care Program. “I find working with the ladies that I have worked with is that they are falling through the holes. They are not understanding what is expected of them from child welfare. I am there to educate them and make sure they know what their rights are and help them with that.”
This is the first program in Thunder Bay that is aimed specifically at Indigenous women and both Dupuis and Vermette emphasized the importance of family in Indigenous culture.
“Starting with the women and getting the children with their mothers is key to maintaining that family and building that family unit because once we can get the family unit together, we can start working together holistically and culturally as a community and build strong and healthy families and end domestic violence against indigenous women and ending violence everywhere,” Vermette said.
“It means the world to them,” Dupuis added. “Without their children a lot of times they feel worthless. That’s when they turn to drugs or alcohol and they don’t feel worthy, they feel lost.”
Dupuis is the only support worker in the program right now and her caseload is already starting to grow. Vermette said based on the need in the community and possible funding opportunities, the program may expand in the future.
“My hope is more women come forward because the service is greatly needed,” she said. “It’s unique to Indigenous women. Even though our crisis homes do have advocates for the women, we never had a worker that was specific to that, and that’s a huge success for the city and the community.”
