The following help foster caregivers support connections to a child’s community and culture:

• Lived experience (for Indigenous foster caregivers): as Indigenous foster caregivers, drawing on your own cultural practices and kinship networks provides opportunities to engage children in Indigenous cultures; even when caregivers are from a different Nation than the child, caring for them as an Indigenous person can be a way to support cultural identity.
• Doing your research: take the initiative in researching about a child’s Nation and learn about local community events and cultural connections. Make sure to check-in with the child’s social worker and discuss your role in contacting the child’s Nation and community.
• Engage in cultural activities as a family, in the community and at home: it is important to engage in both community-based and home-based activities which can include activities such as cultural nights, Pow Wows, engaging with Elders, cooking traditional foods, using educational books and shows, networking in community and attending VACFSS events and programming.
• Engaging in and preparing for children to touch the land of their relations: the most powerful way to connect a child to their specific culture is visiting the child’s home territory, community and extended family members. Trips home are an important way to make or strengthen relationships with members of the child’s circle and can lead to ongoing relationships and a greater openness between the child’s family and the foster family. Make sure that you have discussed this with the child’s social worker, as you will need the consent and support of the social worker before contacting and visiting a child’s community.
• Using resources in schools: look to schools for additional education, resources, and events that can support your work in connecting children to cultural knowledge and opportunities.

Here is more information on children’s cultural and relational rights, including access to related United Nations documents.

And here is a video about the importance of culture.

Find out more about VACFSS cultural events and programming by visiting the cultural programming page or speak with the child’s social worker to learn more.

To learn more about how to approach Inclusive Foster Care, including tips for caregivers, social workers, and resources, download the “Inclusive Foster Care: How Do We Do It?” booklet designed for those in a child’s circle.

The following help foster caregivers support children’s connection to parents and family:

• Develop relationships with the child’s parents and extended family: coming into relationship with a child’s parents and/or family is an inclusive act that can provide insights into the child’s family and strengthen one’s motivation to engage with Inclusive Foster Care. Developing inclusive relationships is a process; take a step-by-step approach to building the relationship over time. Set clear boundaries for the relationship while remaining open, if there are concerns about safety, speak with a social worker. You can also speak with a child’s social worker regarding direct communication with the child’s parents, as relationships are easier to maintain when you have direct communication (whether it be through email, text messaging, social media, or phone calls). You need to ensure the child’s social worker has agreed before contacting a child’s Nation or new members of the child’s circle.
• Understand a family’s stories: find common ground in shared life experiences; be open and empathetic to family’s stories. Learn more about the challenges faced by the family and the resilience of Indigenous communities through participating in training and self-study. It is particularly important to understand the impact of the following on individual and family behaviours: parental mental illness, substance use, and disability; separation and loss; and colonization and intergenerational trauma. Research colonial history and policies, such as Residential Schools and the Indian Act, to better understand the historical and current implications of colonization (you can start here (hyperlink).
• Develop a shared vision for the child: discuss plans of care and permanency for the child at Inclusive Foster Care meetings, Care Plan meetings, and with the social workers. It is important that foster caregivers and other partners share a vision of the child’s future in which the child is connected to both their family and community, and to the foster caregivers. All partners have a role in raising the child together. Within Inclusive Foster Care, children remain in the center of their own circle with foster caregivers and other supports joining them; this contrasts the idea that children belong to a foster family’s circle and parents and extended family do not. In this sense, Inclusive Foster Care involves a process of adding to, or strengthening, relationships within the child’s circle to ensure that the child grows into adulthood feeling supported by those around them and knowing who they are. It is important to reflect on how your values impact and support your responsibility to strengthen the child’s relational and cultural connections.
• Honour the strengths and successes of parents, family, and community: acknowledge that parents love their children and are doing the best they can right now. Reflect on parents’ and families’ stories of loss, struggle, and resilience, but focus on the strengths and expertise of the child’s circle. Ask the child’s circle for advice and be curious about what they have done in the past that has worked well for the child. Honour the child’s community, culture, and customs; children should develop a sense of pride and belonging in their identity as Indigenous children.

I think the purpose for me in that is I want them to understand that they still have a part in the girls’ lives. And they still, they do hold valuable information, whatever it is they know, and whatever their experiences are it’s still valuable. – Foster Caregiver

Difficulties may arise when establishing relationships with adults in a child’s circle, for example when a parent is struggling to manage an addiction. When thinking about how to support a relationship between children and their family in these situations, it is important to think of connection as more than just face-to-face contact. Familial relationships can be support through alternative ways of connecting, such as through phone calls, written communication or even, as one foster caregiver said, pictures:

And, like, they even talk about, we have a picture of their mum right there on the wall, like their bio mum so they get to see her whenever they want. They’ve never met her but they talk about her from time to time. – Foster Caregiver

To learn more about how to approach Inclusive Foster Care, including tips for caregivers, social workers, and resources, download the “Inclusive Foster Care: How Do We Do It?” booklet designed for those in a child’s circle.