Developing first nations child welfare standards: using evaluation research within a participatory framework

Participatory research evaluation process with 8 First Nations communities
Helping to develop community-based child and family services standards
The principles and methods aligned with action research were important for this study in particular, and included:
• Focus group with a standard set of questions
• Qualitative methods

This article describes a participatory research evaluation process that took place with eight First Nations communities with the goal of developing community-based and culturally relevant child and family service standards. The study sought out involvement from a variety of participants in each community, with separate focus groups conducted for "chief, council members, and elders; local child and family service committee members and community staff; biological parents, foster parents, and homemakers; and youths between the ages of 13 and 18" (p. 141). The research points to changes that are needed in terms of policy and how child welfare is conceptualized in Canada.

• Meeting the needs of First Nations children and families
• Attempting to provide culturally relevant and safe care
• Understanding the nuance of culturally relevant care, diversity of practice, and differences between individuals and communities
• Voluntary inclusion in the study was sent out to nine First Nations communities, of which eight accepted which involved the communities' chief and council and individual participants
• An advisory committee was created to help with research design and study which comprised of members form the eight First Nations communities including foster parents, elders, children and families included in the child and family service agencies, and an array of comm

• Finding ways to create and make community driven and culturally informed First Nations child and family services with the overarching goal of self-determination and empowering the community
• Having multiple focus groups and sessions in which researchers and community could interact enabled young people to be more involved in the conversations about child welfare
• Localized action identified community to community on what needs to be done to solve issues
• Importance of culture, language, ceremonies and teachings were identified as a core component to better child welfare services

• Two rounds of focus groups as a main source of data collection
• The advisory committee for this project comprised of elders, foster parents, community-based staff, and general community members.

The research points to changes that should be made in policy and how child welfare is conceptualized in Canada and the need for culturally relevant care and services for Indigenous children and their families
This includes more efforts to include culture, language, ceremonies and teachings into how care and services are built out for families.

"[It] is important to note the high priority placed on community-based placements. For example, nonrelative foster homes in the same community were valued as highly as extended family placements outside the community. This reflects the legacy of previous experience with child welfare agencies who removed children from the community, but it also reflects a more traditional view of the family that includes community connections" (p. 145)

Program evaluation
First Nations child and family services
child welfare