About

Children Are Our Gifts

Sagkeeng Child and Family Services is one of 10 agencies in the Southern First Nations Network of Care providing provincially mandated services.

We believe that children are our gifts and as a community, it is our responsibility to guarantee their physical, social, emotional and spiritual needs.

We provide a variety of services built on the principles of honesty, respect, kindness, trust, humility and courage. We welcome your comments anytime.

Sagkeeng Child and Family Services began operations in early 1977 as a result of an agreement signed with Indian Affairs in November 1976. That agreement specified the band would administer Indian Affairs child welfare, (including group homes), homemaker services, recreation and day care programs. The files of Fort Alexander chil­dren in the care of Indian Affairs were turned over to the band during a period of two years to allow for the training of staff that was going on at the same time. As the first band-operated Indian Child Welfare program in the country, and as a program where Chief and Council had decided that a Provincial Child Welfare Act mandate would not be appropriate, it had to develop a model for providing services that would meet the following requirements:
  • viewed as culturally appropriate by the community.
  • able to provide effective intervention in the situations that are referred to it.
  • able to protect children in need of protection without having legal right to intervene unilaterally in any situations.
The program that evolved is one that attempted to make ongoing use of existing family strengths and resources, and to func­tion as much as possible in a way that promot­ed better family functioning. This meant some basic changes from the standards and prac­tices of the established agencies, and some major adjustments to the way certain prob­lems were approached.

Source: Fort Alexander Newsletter, October 1992