Child and Family Services

After taking office in 2008, we realized very early that the current state of Child and Family was wholly inadequate to serve the needs of the community. In the Fall of 2008 a full Review of CFS was completed and indicated that a new direction was needed for the organization. Chief and Council indicated that this "new" direction must entail making the organization more reflective of the cultural needs or the community. With this in mind, CFS decided to use Puk as a pilot project.

As we announced at the Annual General Assembly, CFS will build a new facility to house the agency's office and financial instuitions. There are also plans for the creation of a possible 26 permanent positions. Negotiations are underway and we are expected to start construction this Spring.

It has long been our traditions that it takes an entire community to raise a child. We need to get back to these roots. To teach Children to respect adults and to teach all adults to respect these children. Children are a gift and we need to treat them in a respectful, loving way so that we ensure our children are successful in their futures. Only then will they know how to treat children of their own and once that is established, our nation will grow to realize the full strength of it's potential.

Far to many years have passed where our Cree children were removed from their families and detached from their communities and their culture. This has been the root cause of our current state of affairs and our social situations, however, if we work together to build a stronger child caring agency we can reestablish the strength of our families and ultimately, the strength of our communities. The government had a very specific goal when they initiated these previous policies and we will not let them win.