that guides action.
Our touchstones are exemplary guidelines for the four phases of reconciliation. We use the term Touchstones of Hope because these guidelines are a positive way to create a bright future for Indigenous children and youth.
Reconciliation in Child Welfare
The Touchstones for Leadership: Reconciliation in Indigenous Child Welfare is a result of a gathering held in Niagara Falls in 2005. At this gathering Indigenous and non-Indigenous leadership within child welfare gathered to create a vision of how to better serve Indigenous children, youth and families. The result of this gathering was the document entitled “Reconciliation in Child Welfare: Touchstones of Hope for Indigenous Children, Youth and Families”. This document outlined 5 guiding principles and 4 phases of engaging in a Reconciliation process. |
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The document was just the beginning. 2 years later, the National Indian Child Welfare Association hosted, in conjunction with their annual conference, the second Reconciliation gathering that drew communities to highlight their successes with reconciliation activities.
In addition to the gatherings, a university curriculum has been developed (but not yet piloted) and there have been many presentations across Canada and the World spreading the message of the Touchstones of Hope.
The Touchstones for Leadership: Reconciliation in Child Welfare is the most recent initiative of this movement. This initiative will train Aboriginal women in the CAB Touchstones curriculum as well as put a call out for communities to host their own sessions.
Caring Across the Boundaries
This particular curriculum is also the third installment of the Caring Across the Boundaries initiative, which aims to bring together members of First Nations communities and the Voluntary Sector for purposes of mutual education, collaboration, relationship building and networking.
Caring Across the Boundaries is an interactive workshop that facilitates collaboration between First Nations child and family services agencies and the voluntary sector. The program was developed based on research which found that First Nations children and youth on reserve have almost no access to the broad range of prevention and quality of life services provided by the voluntary sector (FNCFCS, 2003).
The goal was simple: Provide the reason and the opportunity for people to come together to learn about each other, share experiences and work together to create steps for decreasing the service gaps for First Nations children, youth and families. CAB has been operating since 2004. Since that time, a number of communities have hosted both the CAB: Original curriculum as well as the CAB: Youth Focus with great success. The most recent phase of the CAB is the Touchstones for Leadership: Reconciliation in Child Welfare curriculum which will bring together leaders in child welfare to engage in a process of Reconciliation utilizing the values base known as the Touchstones.