Payukotayno James & Hudson Bay Family Services

This analysis was produced by IFSD to support ongoing research in First Nations child and family services. IFSD's work is undertaken through a contract with the Assembly of First Nations (AFN). The views and analysis do not necessarily reflect the views of the AFN.

Context
Payukotayno James & Hudson Bay Family Services (Payukotayno) is a Children’s Aid Society serving all community members – both First Nation and non-Indigenous - on- and off-reserve, including a municipality and a local area services board, along the western coast of James and Hudson Bay, geographically prescribed by the Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, of approximately 8,000 people.  For 40 years, the agency has provided a range of services including, child welfare, children’s and youth’s mental health services, foster and customary care, adoption, and prevention services. 

The communities served are geographically remote and are often only accessible by boat, aircraft, or ice road. The seasonal cycle, including the annual flood threats that result in community evacuations, further complicate accessibility. This makes commuting and service-delivery costs high.  Payukotayno charters a plane from Timmins three times a week at a cost of $11,000 per day to reach three First Nation communities.  For the farthest and most northern community, a special charter, costing $17,000 per day per Transport Canada regulations, is required.  Due to travel costs and logistics, staff are encouraged to work from or stay in the community they serve to minimize costs.  However, a lack of on-reserve and off-reserve housing and accommodations makes this challenging, and impacts program delivery and staff retention. 

Payukotayno navigates these realities to serve children, youth, and families, with an approach premised on culturally-relevant community building and capacity development for program and service delivery. Most staff are members of the First Nations served, and have been personally impacted by the child welfare system. Staff are making decisions not only as employees, but as part of the community fabric.

History

In the 1970s and early 1980s, a high number of First Nations children were in care, and services to children and families in the region were administered by independent provincial government entities with satellite offices in Moosonee. Child protection, children’s mental health, and adult counselling, were all delivered separately. Community leaders advocated for their expectations and collaborated with Ontario to enhance the coordination of services in the region.  The communities saw value in working together “as one family” and hoped for change.  On July 12, 1984. Payukotayno was incorporated to:

[P]lan, develop, deliver, coordinate, and administer social services for children and their families of the James and Hudson Bay Area in the Ontario, for the purpose of strengthening maintaining families and communities and assuring the growth, development, and support of all children and their families within their own communities while preserving their unique cultural heritage and identity.

As one of the first Indigenous agencies in Ontario, the organization started with little support, capital, or staff. Three staff, on a budget of $245,000 (anecdotally), were tasked with creating the organization. In the decades that followed, Payukotayno was mandated by the Ontario Government (1987) and therefore had to follow the service delivery parameters and financial constraints of mainstream child welfare model, while the demand for services informed by culture and socio-economic realities increased. Payukotayno is unique; it is an Indigenous agency that includes non-Indigenous English- and French-speaking families in its jurisdiction.  With a constrained financial environment, the agency operated in a crisis response mode, while attempting to improve inadequate services. This process can be slow, despite Payuktayno’s hard work and advocacy.

“We need to look through a lens of prevention and partnership.  We need to change our thinking on how we are supporting communities…the original intent.”

Now, Payukotayno is working towards the communities’ original vision: “[o]ur families are healthy and empowered to nurture and care for their own.” The organization is moving forward with an Omushkego approach to child welfare (“As One Family”). This approach focuses on children as gifts from the Creator, extended family networks as collective, and adopts a holistic perspective that integrates spirituality, local culture and the relationship with the land, ways of knowing and being, and rites of passage.

Community building

Payukotayno is a partner with each First Nation, and considers a gradual transformational strategy to be essential to supporting and sustaining change in service delivery. The agency’s board members are appointed by leadership of Weenusk, Attawapiskat, Kashechewan, Fort Albany, Moose Cree, and Taykwa Tagamou First Nations, Mocreebec, and Moosonee.  Annually, it presents at the Mushkegowuk Council Assembly.

Payukotayno sees First Nations taking the lead as a critical long-term goal. Working with the First Nations communities, the agency is transforming in coordination with each First Nation to create community-based service hubs.  Payukotayno supports the First Nation communities by planning and mapping steps to service delivery, “meet[ing] them where they’re at.”  There is recognition that First Nation communities all have different starting points on their reclamation of sovereignty over child welfare, education, health, etc. The agency works alongside First Nations communities, supporting them through the planning and execution processes, specifically through the input and guidance of the Deputy Chiefs/First Nation Representative Services Table: “We need to look through a lens of intervention, prevention and partnership.  We need to change our thinking on how we are supporting communities…the original intent.”

First Nation communities working with Payukotayno had two years of funding to support and establish their service hubs.  There is no arguing over prevention dollars, their approach was pre-determined.  Each on-reserve First Nation community determined what they would do with prevention funding and how services would be designed and delivered.  The agency is working alongside each First Nation through an established regional prevention network to support community-based, First Nation-led prevention programs, e.g., “The Prevention House Toolkit.”

While the warmth and integration of the agency-First Nation relationship varies based on community and context, roles for each of the partners are becoming more clearly defined as each First Nation asserts its sovereignty over child and family well-being.  The First Nations deliver prevention services with support from the agency, and the agency delivers protection services along with tertiary or intensive prevention services.  This is an interim model, as each First Nation is determinimg their unique vision of child and family well-being.

In one example, the healthy working relationship between First Nation and agency has seen an exceptional increase in trust and capacity development. According to the agency: “…they [the First Nation] are doing a fantastic job with prevention. […] They are building a relationship of trust where community members are seeking out prevention before protection.”

The capacity building piece within First Nations is crucial to the agency, “our communities know themselves better than we [agency] do.  It’s our job to set them up for success.” 

Capacity development

The majority of Payukotayno’s staff are members of the First Nations served. Payukotayno staff highlighted community-based staffing as important to effective service delivery. They are making decisions not only as employees, but also as part of the community. However, two key barriers exist to the staffing approach.

First, there is a lack of housing within all communities, on-reserve and in the municipality. Community members who would like to return home to work are unable to find adequate housing on- and off-reserve. Other provincial social services (e.g., police, education, health) have subsidized housing available to staff, but not for child and family services. This makes it difficult to recruit and retain staff. One staff member said “people can’t come home because they’ve got nowhere to live.”

Second, there is a shortage of human resource capacity within communities. Provincial regulations now stipulate post-secondary educational requirements to work in provincial child welfare. There are community members that meet these professional requirements, yet are employed in other organization, making it difficult for Payukotayno to recruit.  The agency employs 130 staff members, but these staff members are not paid at provincially comparable rates.  Additionally, access to community-based career and training opportunities is limited (especially for those interested in social work). This includes many of Payukotayno’s current childcare workers, who have worked in the field for many years.

Payukotayno is addressing this barrier by partnering with a university and a regional tribal organization to deliver a community-based social work degree learning and career continuum model. Payukotyano is working with these partners to ensure applicants to the four-year program will have advanced standing for their prior educational and work experience and are investigating the recognition of concurrent application of learning for the practicum component.

The program and internal capacity delivering approach are essential for jurisdiction, for the agency and for each First Nation.  Building capacity and expertise within the First Nation by integrating cultural and traditional practices with Western ones increases support and staff availability, benefitting both the agency and each First Nation’s programs and service delivery models. 

Finances

Payukotayno is funded primarily by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services (ON), but has seen increased funding directly from Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) in recent years, particularly through CHRT-related funding (see Figure 1).

Expenditures have steadily increased over the past seven fiscal years, including in years with lower revenues. A breakdown of expenses by fiscal year is presented below in Figure 2. The source of increased expenditures has varied by fiscal year (see Figure 3).

The agency’s funding is complicated by its provision of services to First Nations and non-Indigenous children. Payukotayno emphasized that funding is a constant challenge: “the current funding arrangement, which involves both federal and provincial contributions, does not meet the organization’s needs.” Payukotayno is not able to pay staff at provincially comparable rates, nor is it able to offer the range of services consistent with its vision, e.g., customary care.

The agency is stressed to fulfill its dual mandate of protection and prevention, particularly for prevention.  While each First Nation received prevention funding, they currently rely on the agency for implementation and support as they develop their own programs and services. 

Gradual Transformation

Payukotayno is working towards addressing structural drivers of children in care. Over time, its goal is to reduce the need for protection interventions by leveraging prevention services. This shift cannot be rushed, and will take time. Structural drivers are deeply rooted. In the words of agency staff:

Families within the agency’s jurisdiction are often unjustly held responsible for issues of poverty, and inaccessible access to adequate housing, health, education, and social services contribute to the rising number of children entering the agency’s care.  These challenges stem from systemic factors rooted in colonial history and are largely beyond a family’s influence.

Orchestrating this gradual transformation will also require adequate and consistent resources, e.g., funding. Payukotayno can only plan and deliver this change if it has certainty. Abrupt changes, e.g., in funding or regulations, disrupt the agency’s transformation.

Conclusion

Payukotayno is tackling a number of items as it implements its gradual transformational strategy:

• Jurisdiction – the agency serves all community members, both First Nation and non-Indigenous, on- and off-reserve, and its jurisdiction includes a municipality and a local area services board.
• Accessibility –  the agency incurs high costs (e.g., chartering flights) to connect people with services. This can be particularly challenging given annual flood threats and evacuation orders, etc.
• Community partnerships –  the agency is working closely with each First Nation, and organizations, e.g., university partnership, to operationalize its gradual transformational strategy.
• Capacity building and staffing – recruiting staff is an ongoing challenge, particularly in light of new regulatory requirements. Qualified staff from First Nations are highly sought after.
• Finances –  the agency stressed that finances are a constant challenge that make it very difficult to meet the agency’s needs. Serving First Nations and non-Indigenous children further complicates funding.
• Prevention – First Nations rely on Payukotayno to implement and support local prevention activities. While First Nations receive prevention dollars, the agency does not receive additional funding to provide this support.
• Indigenous Knowledge – the agency is integrating Indigenous family and child-centric knowledge with provincially mandated standards.

Delivering services takes time and requires capacity. Staff need to be trained, competent, and available (i.e., not managing an unsustainable workload). Processes and systems need to be designed and implemented.  Organizational strategies need to be determined by senior leadership and executed, with room for adjustment.  Developing partnerships, like Payukotayno’s parternship with a university, can help agencies develop long-term capacity and stability. Capacity can be built internally, but it cannot be built overnight. It takes time for an agency to reach stability and organizational maturity.