Health & Wellness Magazine Community Of Caring - Summer 2019 | Page 30

KEEPING INNU CHILDREN CLOSE TO HOME
Keeping Innu Children Close To Home
BY: ERIN LIGHT
SHESHATSHIU INNU First Nation is
nestled beside Labrador’s Lake Melville,
at the foot of the spectacular Mealy
Mountains. Janet Bellefleur was born and
raised here, in this community of 1,300 in
the heart of Nitassinan—the Innu land. Her
love for her community is unmistakable.
She shows it in the way she patiently
corrects my clumsy English pronunciation
of Innu words, in the way she has chosen
to build a family here, in the way she
has devoted her career to serving her
community, and in the way she passionately
speaks of the struggles of her people.
Nationally, there is a disproportionate
Indigenous involvement in the child
welfare system, and Newfoundland
and Labrador is no exception.
Over one in five Innu children have been
removed from their family homes. While
many can remain in their communities,
there are 86 Innu children for whom this
is not the case. These children have been
placed many kilometres away from home,
and all have experienced a loss of language
and connection to the traditions, beliefs,
and practices that define them as Innu.
For years, the Innu communities of
Sheshatshiu and Natuashish have been
working with the province to bring their
children home. In-community placement
homes were identified as a crucial step
towards realizing this goal, the first
stage being a licensed placement home
operating to provincial standards—a
Group Home in Sheshatshiu.
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When Janet heard about the Group
Home project, she was thrilled: “The
first person I thought of was my mother.
[She] spent many years helping people
in our community, and she always
said that non-Innu cannot solve what
Innu people are going through.” This
project would be different than so many
that came before. It would be Innu-
led and built around Innu culture.
Jack Penashue, former Director of Social
Health in Sheshatshiu, had previously
developed the Innu Care Approach—a
framework for human service delivery
that was based on the values and
traditional ways of knowing and being
that were inherent to the Innu.
With Jack’s work as a foundation, the
Innu team partnered with Aurelia, a
Seafair organization who specializes
in building internal capacity for the
delivery of Child and Youth Care (CYC)
services in Indigenous communities. With
extensive input from Innu organizations
and community members, Aurelia jointly
developed the Innu Care Approach
to CYC (ICA-CYC): a unique, 12-day
curriculum blending Western CYC best
practices with local knowledge around
child rearing. By merging the two worlds,
the ICA-CYC supports Sheshatshiu’s CYC
workers to develop the necessary skills to
meet the provincially legislated standards
while also attempting to preserve—rather
than replace—traditional Innu ways.
Today, Janet, along with a Board of
Directors, oversees the Home as Executive
Director and will soon oversee two more
homes due to open in 2020. True to their
original vision, the Group Home is Innu-
led, Innu-managed, and Innu-operated.
It can accommodate up to seven youths
and employs 21 people, each of whom
have completed extensive training with the
Aurelia team in preparation for their roles.
The effects of this capacity development
continue to reverberate throughout the
community. Many of the trainees have
become trainers themselves, and skills
and knowledge ripple outwards as they
are shared within extended families.
“My greatest hope,” says Janet, “is that
one day my community will be healthy,
and our children will be healthy, living
in their home. But until that day, my
hope is to help families reunite after
being separated, to be able to provide
support and caring for any Innu child
that comes into care. I believe anything is
possible with a great team of people.”
Outside of her work at the Group Home,
Janet continues to inspire commitment
to Innu children and families. One of
her daughters is studying to become a
CYC worker, following in the footsteps
of her mother and grandmother.
To learn more about Aurelia,
visit: www.weareaurelia.ca