Advocacy In Child Care

Natasha Davis, Izabela Andova, Natasha Jobe & Bruna Reis

NO MORE

CHILDREN SHOULD

BEFORGOTTEN

Advocacy In Child Care Part A & B

Rationale:( why this topic is important for us to educate people on)We believe that this topic is worth advocating because we want everyone to know how important this is and why. After being introduced to the “Jeffery Baldwin Story” among others it is clear that we must be the voice for today’s generation of children and for their safety and protection. We want everyone to understand how something so simple could have prevented a death.

This issues impacts a lot of Early Childhood Educators. As an ECE’s our job is to keep children safe in a fun loving educational environment that promotes learning.When working with these children we think of them as our own. This topic impacts the safety and well-being of any child who is in need of care by someone else. All children have the right to be in a home that is safe, loving, and respectful with an environment filled by love. They also deserve to be with people who can show them affection.

Our Advocacy Topic

-We as “ECE’ s” “believe that background checks and vulnerable person checks should be done on anyone such as“fit caregivers” like foster parents or emergency care centres for children.

Continued..

-Do they all do background check?-How far back into a persons background do you go?-What education do you need to become a caregiver?-What is the screening process for someone looking to become a caregiver?-What would make a person be unacceptable/unfit for this position?-Before and after if the caregivers are approved, is their a home inspection done to make sure the facility is safe?-How often do they check on the children?

What action if any is being taken and by whom to strengthen the Ontario`s Child protection laws.

Who is responsible for background checks to help the children in need to be placed in a comfortable and well nourished homes.

Who is, or is’t doing something about this issue?

We want to make sure that everyone who wants to take care of children go through the same process as everyone else. No one should have special treatment when it comes to protocol.

How can we help? What can we do as ECE’ s to take action this cause?

Advocacy In Child Care Reflective Summary

While exploring this topic we learned how much people agree with our cause. We realize how strongly people feel and care about the lives of our children today.This information will assist us by always remembering that as ECE's why background checks have been created and how important it is for our children's safety that everyone has one done.

● Article from the CBC News● Below is a small video of random people out and about and their views on our cause.

Advocacy In Child Care Part D

One of the people who were contacted from the listing of our stakeholders to help support our cause was Jean Vance who is till this day still a foster parent.

We as a group decided that Jean would be a good person of interest because of her relationship she has built with our group member.Jean was my foster parent at one point in my life and I felt that she would be a great person to talk about the process she underwent to become a foster parent.

This is what she had to say:"The importance of criminal record checks is huge in so many ways. First if, you are applying for a position which requires full honesty and trust, your employer needs to know that you have nothing in your background which would contradict any of this. Especially when working with children, for instance, you don't want someone who may have been convicted of any sort of sexual crimes/crimes against children or in any way which would affect your work with children/youth. In the States they do not check as close and that is why you see so many individuals whose backgrounds end up in question because no criminal record check had ever been done. It is mandatory in Canada to have a criminal record check in any position where you are responsible for the health and welfare/safety of another individual, especially if that individual is vulnerable, eg. a person with emotional/mental challenges. It basically boils down to the trust and honesty of an individual. The criminal record check is just the icing on the cake, so to speak. It just verifies that you are free from any criminal activity and are capable of being in a position which requires honesty/trust/being a person whose character is beyond reproach".

Advocacy In Child Care..... initial contacts continuedOne of the other people contacted was someone who recently underwent the in depth process of adoption who chose to remain anonymous.Because we wanted to respect their wishes we sent an email asking them questions that we wanted to know about the issue. Her response:

For this assignment, our group decided to advocate about why it is important for thorough background checks to happen in order to take care of children (foster, adoption, etc). We contacted a couple of people; a lady who has recently become an adoptive parent, as well as a lady named Jean, who has been a foster parent for a while. Both of these ladies provided our group with lots of knowledge, as well as support for our cause.

What action did we take?

After learning more about the process of becoming a foster parent, we went out into the college and even

malls to talk to people and get their take on background checks. We had many people sign a petition to show their support for these children's safety. We were also able to

record several people to get their input (on camera) about this. We also started discussions on twitter about this topic and were able to raise awareness on our social

networking sites.

People Who Support Our Cause Signatures

Staff and Students at Centennial...

http:

Canadian foster care in crisis, experts say

"Some children placed in homes before safety checks made".........

"There are thousands of people who do it just because they care, and can they do it adequately? Not always. Do they get the training they need? Not usually," she said. "We need to find a way to support these people better, both financially and with training, education and daily support."-Wiebe

Foster parents cannot support on $23-$30 a day

who is supporting the good guys in this issue?

"Some children are placed in foster care without full safety checks while others wind up in supervised apartments or overcrowded homes, say child advocates who warn of a deepening crisis across the country"

'When people get desperate … sometimes kids get put into homes where those processes may not be complete.'— Bev Wiebe, Winnipeg-based social services consultant

If your name or birth date is the same or similar as someone who has a conviction, you now have to get fingerprinted and send that off to Ottawa for the full report. Well, that can take a long time

After we graduate, our group is definitely going to continue this project. We will keep our friends on social networking updated with what is going on with this issue. As well as continue to make fellow ECE's and parents aware of why these processes are needed. We will keep in contact with Jean and some of the other people we talked to in order to ensure these measures are still being taken.

What Next???

Bibliography, Resources & References

Resources and possible stakeholdersPeople/ Organizations of Interest:-Catholic Children’s Aid Society-Children’s aid society-Native Child-Jewish-Eva’s Phoenix Youth Shelter ( screening process)-Foster parent Caren- inside insight of their process and protocols- Ex-foster parent Jean- inside insight of process and protocols

http://parcyouth.com/contact.html

http://www.casmt.on.ca/

http://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/topics/childrensaid/childrensaidsocieties/improving.aspx

http://www.torontocas.ca/main.php/category/out-and-proud/http://www.oacas.org/

News clip from CBC Newshttp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/02/19/foster-care-cp.html