Batshaw and community workers in Lachine, LaSalle and Verdun held their first \u201cMy Family, My Community\u201d Steering Committee meeting last Friday, November 30.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy Family, My Community\u201d will radically change how Batshaw Youth and Family Services handles youth protection cases for children between one- and five-years old and their older siblings. In future, potential placement crises will be handled via team decision making meetings in the child\u2019s community, not at Batshaw head office.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen there is a crisis, I call on the community and we work out a way to keep the child within their own neighbourhood,\u201d says Ninar Itani, Batshaw\u2019s \u201cMy Family, My Community\u201d project coordinator. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping that this will prevent children at risk from being sent out of their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project is needed because too many children from Lachine, LaSalle and Verdun have to live far from their regular homes when family crises occur.<\/p>\n
Last year, only four of 15 children from Lachine were able to stay in Lachine while their parents sought treatment for alcohol or drug abuse, mental health breakdowns or other serious problems. Of the 22 children taken into protection in LaSalle last year, only two stayed near their usual homes. Of the 16 children who had to be removed from homes in Verdun, only two were placed nearby in Verdun. The other 45 children went to foster homes in Ahunsic, Brossard, Chateauguay, Cote St. Luc, Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and Ville Marie. Older siblings had to travel daily or change schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy family, my community\u201d aims to develop networks of support close to parents, so that children can be protected either in their own homes or in homes nearby. \u201cOne of the strategies is for us to develop links with community players,\u201d says Itani. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t have to be the CLSC; it doesn\u2019t have to be foster parents. It can be the grandmother; it can be the depanneur owner down the street. It can be anyone who has the parents\u2019 trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy family, my community\u201d is a revamped version of the \u201cFamily to Family System\u201d originally developed by the Casey Foundation in the United States. Batshaw and the Association des centres jeunesse du Qu\u00e9bec<\/em> (ACJQ) have received $1,105,527 from Avenir d’enfants<\/em> to run the project for three years in Montreal, the Mont\u00e9r\u00e9gie and Abitibi.<\/p>\n A research team led by Marc Tourigny from the University of Sherbrooke will assess the project and provide evaluations to steering committees like the one meeting on Friday.<\/p>\n At that meeting, representatives from local CLSCs, CCS Services, COVIQ, the Douglas Institute, Elizabeth House, Lester B. Pearson and the Foster Families department at Batshaw will discuss how the project will be implemented. The group plans to meet four times a year for the next three years.<\/p>\n Itani says that the project may take time to garner results, but communities in the United States that have tried the new approach have only good things to say. \u201cThere\u2019s more of a sense of confidence when a case is closed because the foster family and all the other players are still in the community supporting the family even after a placement ends or a crisis is adverted.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Batshaw and community workers in Lachine, LaSalle and Verdun held their first \u201cMy Family, My Community\u201d Steering Committee meeting last Friday, November 30. \u201cMy Family, My Community\u201d will radically change how Batshaw Youth and Family Services handles youth protection cases for children between one- and five-years old and their older siblings. In future, potential placement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lasalleposts","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2buQs-kT","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":554,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/mentors-and-foster-families-needed-in-lasalle\/","url_meta":{"origin":1295,"position":0},"title":"Mentors and Foster Families Needed in LaSalle","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"June 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"LaSalle-based community groups and schools met on Wednesday, May 16 at the Madre Dei Christiani Church of LaSalle for the second Networking and Partnership Initiative (NPI) for Dorval, Lachine and LaSalle. This time, much of the discussion focussed on the urgent need for more people in the community to assist\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "LaSalle"","block_context":{"text":"LaSalle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/lasalleposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17181,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/douglas-institute-ciusss-managers\/","url_meta":{"origin":1295,"position":1},"title":"Douglas Institute managers met neighbours last month","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"May 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Verdun residents living next to the Douglas Research Institute met\u00a0the new management team from the\u00a0Montr\u00e9al\u00a0West Island Integrated University Health and Social Services Center\u00a0(CIUSSS ODIM in French) last month (Thursday April 14). During the meeting, new directors spoke about improvements in care under the new structure. Complex cases can now\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Verdun"","block_context":{"text":"Verdun","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/verdunposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Douglas Hall","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/douglas-hall-superbe.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/douglas-hall-superbe.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/douglas-hall-superbe.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1297,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/npi-lasall\/","url_meta":{"origin":1295,"position":2},"title":"LaSalle English-language community workers share resources and insights","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"December 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"How do you motivate vulnerable teenagers? Are more Anglophones struggling to find work? Why do children with learning difficulties or mental health issues have to wait so long before being diagnosed by a psychiatrist or psychologist? These are some of the tougher issues discussed at the Networking and Partnership Initiative\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "LaSalle"","block_context":{"text":"LaSalle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/lasalleposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17219,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/lasalle-crawford-lachine\/","url_meta":{"origin":1295,"position":3},"title":"June 22 in LaSalle, Crawford Park School and Lachine 350th","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"June 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Two stories appeared in the city edition and one story appeared in the West Island edition of The Suburban today. LaSalle to hold public consultation June 22 The story on page A7\u00a0of The Suburban outlines four projects that will be presented to citizens by the borough of LaSalle at a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Island Report"","block_context":{"text":"Island Report","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/island-report\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"NDG-annexe-2_Lloyd-George","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/NDG-annexe-2_Lloyd-George.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":139,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/south-west-montreal-unio\/","url_meta":{"origin":1295,"position":4},"title":"South West Montreal UNIO 2013 Winners","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"October 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Last Thursday, 12 companies from the Lachine, LaSalle, South West and Verdun boroughs took home trophies for business excellence at the UNIO 2013 Awards. The award gala was held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, October 24 in the new Wave Room (room 110) in the Dompark Complexe, 5524, rue Saint-Patrick.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Island Report"","block_context":{"text":"Island Report","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/island-report\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17156,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/lasalle-borough-meeting-last-night\/","url_meta":{"origin":1295,"position":5},"title":"LaSalle borough meeting last night","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"May 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The LaSalle borough meeting took place last night. Citizen questions focused on a petition against a new dog park in L'Hereux Park, transport struggles for LaSalle residents due to the 5,000 unit development in Lachine East between 6th and the train tracks, perks such as parking, La Ronde and Oceaga\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "LaSalle"","block_context":{"text":"LaSalle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/lasalleposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}