David Rivard, conversation with Muse Kulow, Publisher of Immigrant Post magazine

• Please tell us the story of David Rivard and the key moments that
  shaped your career path?

• I was born and raised in a small town in northern Ontario, comprised primarily of European immigrants who came to Canada following the 2nd World War, seeking a better way of life.
• My father was French Canadian and my mom was Italian and I grew to appreciate the uniqueness of different cultures. Incidentally, my father grew up in a family of 21 children, hence family and extended relationships with kin have always been very important to me.
• My father worked his way up the management ladder in the mining industry and was the first French Canadian appointed to a leadership role. He was able to earn the respect of the workers, the majority being new to Canadian culture.
• I have one brother and he is 12 years older than me.  He spent his working life as a civil servant for the Ontario provincial government and also was able to end his career in a management position.  
• Growing up in a family where I had positive role models helped to shape my career path as a social worker.
• I secured an undergraduate degree in social work at Laurentian University in Sudbury in the early 1970s, got married and shortly thereafter moved to southern Ontario and started my career.
• Over the next 5 years, I worked in a small community-based counselling agency and completed my graduate degree in social work at Wilfred Laurier University in Kitchener.
• Afterwards, we moved back to Northern Ontario, to Sault Ste. Marie and I took on the role of Executive Director of a Family Counselling Agency – a position I held for 20 years.
• Ten years ago, one of my nephews was tragically killed in a car accident and my wife and I decided to move back to Sudbury in order to be closer to our family. By then we  had three children.
• I accepted the position of Executive Director at the Children’s Aid in Sudbury in 2000 and my career in child welfare began.
• While in Sudbury, I had the opportunity to work very closely with Aboriginal/First Nation communities and learned to appreciate the struggles experienced by Indigenous peoples.   
• In 2007, the opportunity arose to assume the leadership role at the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto and I began as the agency’s CEO in January 2008.

2. What is the history of the Child Welfare in Ontario?

Organized child welfare has a long history in Ontario, going back over 130 years, however prior to 1874, Ontario children requiring service received help through two avenues, neither of which are appropriate by today's standards. A criminal conviction was the route that most children came into contact with child welfare.  Apprenticeships were the other child welfare service alternative for children who were deserted or orphaned.

In 1874, charitable institutions were permitted by legislation to get involved  to prevent the maltreatment of children, and a cost-sharing relationship was established between charitable organizations and the provincial government. In 1888, the law changed to allow the courts to make children the responsibility of institutions and charitable organizations, with municipalities assuming the  costs for the children’s care. Foster homes now became alternatives to institutions. 

With this new legislation in place, John Kelso, a newspaper reporter and social activist helped to establish The Children's Aid Society of Toronto in 1891. By 1893 children’s aid societies became semi-public agencies with the legal power to remove children from their homes, supervise and manage them in municipally run "shelters".

Between 1891 and 1912, sixty Children's Aid Societies sprung up across Ontario. In 1912 the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies was formed to promote the welfare of children and co-ordinate the work of all sixty CASs.

Between 1921 and 1984, four new pieces of Child Welfare legislation were passed by the government to improve the protection and care of children. More people became professional, full time child protection workers as opposed to volunteers.  During this time the government of Ontario began to accept direct responsibility for the delivery of child welfare services through public financing, agency reporting and provincial supervision.

In 2006, the government introduced a number of improvements for children and families. These included greater emphasis on placing children with extended family or family friends in an effort to have children remain in their own communities and to prevent them from coming into care of a CAS. These changes were not introduced specifically to address the concerns of immigrants to Ontario, but these communities certainly benefit from them. In a situation where a child of a recent immigrant to Ontario, has to be taken into care, CASs now work diligently to investigate the possibility of having the child remain in their own community, with people, traditions and customs that they know and are familiar with while we work with the family to address their needs.     

Three years ago, the Supreme Court of Canada re-affirmed the mandate of Children’s Aid Societies under the Child and Family Services Act to act in the best interests of the child, protect children and youth from abuse and neglect and ensure their well-being.

4.   What is your vision for the Children's Aid Society of Toronto and how do you position your Agency to carry out this vision?

Shortly after arriving at the agency, it was decided that we would articulate a vision for the organization. After a period of consultation with key stakeholders, the following vision was adopted by the Board of Directors:

"Leading with excellence and working in partnership, we will create a city where children are safe, families are strong, and communities are supported."  

We operationalize this vision through our strategic planning process and the Balanced Scorecard. We make every effort to ensure it becomes a living statement amongst our staff rather than simply words that have little or no meaning.

5.   What are some of the challenges and opportunities that the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto faces in fulfilling its child welfare mandate?

The challenges and opportunities in the work that we do are many.

Funding is a continual challenge. The formula that the provincial government uses to fund children’s aid societies has not kept up with the significant increases in mandatory service and administrative requirements, that we have been ordered to carry out, including over 200 new reporting requirements, involving more casework and more paperwork. For the most part we have met these new requirements placed on us by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services without the additional adequate funding to support them. This has put a huge strain on our financial resources.

Another challenge is our ability to recruit foster parents. The government has very strict requirements around fostering, including the size of the prospective foster parents home and whether or not there is a stay-at-home parent. In a city like Toronto, a lot of people in the typical age range of those that could be foster parents, live in apartments or condos. These types of dwellings because of their limited space, often do not meet the criteria to be foster homes. As well, many people that do live in their own home, have both spouses  working full-time. This to makes being a foster parent that much more of a challenge and discourages many people from considering it.  

In terms of opportunities, we have made great progress in our ability to reach out and connect with the communities that make up the changing face of our city. We have taken the opportunity to learn from these communities of newcomers and increase our understanding of how to better serve them.                     

6. Speaking of the changing face of Toronto, the city’s demographics are changing dramatically, does CAS of Toronto have any initiatives in place that help you deal with and understand this diversity in relation to delivering child welfare services?

Yes, we do. Three things immediately come to mind.

First, it starts with our people. We pride ourselves on the diverse make up of our staff. However, like many organizations in the city, we have to do a better job at ensuring that that diversity is reflected at the senior levels of our agency. We’ve made very good progress in this area, but still realize that we can do better..and we will.

Second, this fall we are celebrating the 10th Anniversary of our Bridging Diversity Committee. This committee made up of staff from all levels of the organization has been very instrumental in providing sound and well thought out direction to our Strategic Leadership Team on numerous issues ranging from cultural and religious celebrations to effective practices in dealing with and understanding the communities we serve.

Finally, in 2006 our Board of Directors approved a very detailed Anti Oppression Anti Racism Policy. This policy is one of the key pillars of our agency. By adopting the policy the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto recognizes and upholds the inherent dignity, worth, and rights of each individual and helps us ensure that we remain committed to the pursuit of equality, freedom from adverse discrimination and harassment and the removal of all barriers to equal opportunity. Our agency recognizes and upholds the principle of equality of access to appropriate services which are sensitive to the needs of clients whatever their race, religion, colour, national origin, ethnic origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, sex, sexual orientation, place of origin, marital status, or ability. In addition, the Society believes that each individual should be free from discrimination, harassment and barriers to equal opportunity related to their gender identity and social condition, including their economic status.

7.   There is a large Muslim population in Toronto, is your Agency
sensitive to their particular needs and what service provisions do you put in place in meeting their needs?

We are indeed sensitive to the needs of the Muslim community and have mobilized many resources to ensure that we continue to understand and serve the community appropriately. For almost three years we have had a Child Welfare Services for Muslim Families Committee that includes senior management and front line staff from our agency and many and various members of Toronto’s Muslim community including Imams, social and settlement workers, medical doctors, school administrators and professional mediators. Our collective work is focused on gaining a better understanding of each other and actively getting out into the community to engage in dialogue and to advance the Muslim community’s understanding of our work. We have participated in Open Houses at different Mosques, Muslim Day at Canada’s Wonderland and have been invited to the Islamic Foundation School in Scarborough to do a presentation to their staff on the work of our Agency. Currently we are   working on developing a follow up presentation at the School for parents. We plan on continuing to work with the Muslim community to identify opportunities for our mutual edification.   

8.   What impact do you intend your leadership to have on child welfare in general and CAST in particular?

At the present time, child welfare in Ontario is going through a period of further transformation and belt tightening, as a result of declining revenues within the provincial government. In October of this year, I will be taking over the voluntary leadership role of the CAS Executive Director’s Group. Provincially, I will be called upon to provide leadership for the CAS Executive Directors, especially in light of the many changes looming on the horizon as a result of the work of the Commission to Promote Sustainable Child Welfare.
With respect to CAST, it is my hope that I will leave a legacy of a leadership style that was open, trustworthy, approachable and inclusive. Personally, I believe very much in a servant-leadership philosophy that places the needs of others before myself. The quote below exemplifies this approach:

 "Leaders we admire do not place themselves at the center; they place others there. They do not seek the attention of people; they give it to others. They do not focus on satisfying their own aims and desires; they look for ways to respond to the needs and interests of their constituents. They are not self-centered; they concentrate on the constituent. . . Leaders serve a purpose and the people who have made it possible for them to lead . . . . In serving a purpose, leaders strengthen credibility by demonstrating that they are not in it for themselves; instead, they have the interests of the institution, department, or team and its constituents at heart. Being a servant may not be what many leaders had in mind when they choose to take responsibility for the vision and direction of their organization or team, but serving others is the most glorious and rewarding of all leadership tasks." by James Kouzes and Barry Posner in Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It.

David Rivard; Executive Director, Children Aid Society of Toronto