Child and Family Services
The Child and Family Wellness program was created to promote the well-being of children, youth, and families, enabling them to thrive. Our child and family wellness worker meets with them to assess their needs, taking a prevention-based approach by providing support before problems arise.
Toquaht Nation flourishes when our masčim (citizens) have their social, spiritual, and economic needs met, including healthy children, youth, and families. As they represent our future, matters related to children and youth are treated with strict confidentiality, and our staff strictly adhere to the Toquaht Nation Code of Conduct and Oath of Confidentiality in their work with our citizens accessing child and family services programs.
Expecting Parents
Becoming a new parent is an exciting time but may feel overwhelming. If you are a new parent and require support to keep your child safe and healthy, the Toquaht Nation Community Services department is here for support.
Our staff can help you:
- Connect with culturally appropriate care providers for mother and child, including Early Years Outreach workers or doulas.
- Purchase safety gear and other necessities for your infant.
Contact Pamela at pamelaf@toquaht.ca or Christy at christyb@toquaht.ca for more information.
Jordan’s Principle
Jordan’s Principle is a child-first principle that applies to all First Nations children living on and off reserve. Its goal is to ensure that there are no gaps in services available to First Nations children, including mental health services, special education, physical and speech therapy, and medical equipment.
This support provides access to many services and products, including:
- Educational supports, such as educational assistants, early childhood educators, psycho-educational assessments or transportation to school;
- Accessibility supports, such as wheelchair ramps;
- Medical supports, such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech language therapy, nutrition supplements; and/or
- Home and personal care, such as in-home nursing care, respite care, in-home palliative care for children.
You can access support for Jordan’s Principle at any time, as the Jordan’s Principle Call Centre is available 24/7. Simply call 1-855-JP-CHILD (1-855-572-4453) to reach the call centre or go online to Jordan’s Principle website.
Child Welfare
The Toquaht Nation Government offers direct support for children and youth who are at high risk of experiencing living arrangement breakdowns. This includes working with child protection agencies like MCFD and Usma. Our support includes advocacy and planning to keep families together, supporting parents to create or improve safety for children, ensuring children in care are connected to family, culture, and community, and supporting the reunification of children with their families or other family members in the community.
We provide intervention and safety planning services to families in crisis, and most importantly, prevention services to ensure children are not at risk of being involved in the child protection system. To access child and family support, please contact Christy at christyb@toquaht.ca.