The publisher of Immigrant post had an opportunity to meet with the Children's Aid Society, director of Community Development & Prevention Services Sharron Richards and had asked the following questions.

Q1. One thing, I would like to know is how did you reach out the Somali community at first?

A:With the increased migration of Somali families to Toronto in the late 80’s and 90’s, Somali families began to come into contact with the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto (CAS Toronto). This was often a frightening experience for these families, as well as for the Somali community, who came from a country where no similar child welfare system existed. Somali parents were unfamiliar with having a government legislated agency come to their door to investigate issues related to the safety of their children/youth. If it was determined that their children were not safe while living at home, parents faced the possibility of their children/youth being removed from their care and placed in foster or residential, or group home care.

This came as a significant shock to families whose previous experience was for relatives or communitymembers to help with caring for children/youth when they parents found themselves unable to do so, This was an unfamiliar and new experience for Somali families. It was not surprising that the confusion and fear felt by these families resulted in a growing tension between Somali families, their community and CAS Toronto. As the relationship grew more tense and problematic, the agency’s Executive Director at that time, Bruce Rivers, realized the critical importance for CAS Toronto to reach out and engage the Somali community leaders to seek their advice on how to address these tensions and to better serve Somali children, youth and families.

Fortunately, one of our Community Development Program staff Cindy Himelstein,was already involved at the time with the Somali Women and e e Children’s Support Network, which also developed into Haween Enterprises, a sewing company employing Somali women. Building on the success of that partnership, CAS Toronto reached out to Midaynta and the Tariq Mosque, resulting in them hosting an information session for its members in which CAS Toronto staff spoke about the agency’s mandate, role and services. The new relationship subsequently lead to the Bridging Child Welfare Services to the Somali Community Project, which was funded by the Children’s Aid Foundation in 1999 and ran until 2003.

The Project was a partnership between CAS Toronto, Midyanta, Somaliland Women’s Organization and the Somali Immigrant Aid Organization, all of whom were funded to provide staff to the Project. The Project proved to be a highly successful partnership between CAS Toronto and the three Somali community serving agencies, resulting in an increased, mutual understanding and experience with each other. Sharron Richards, currently the Director of the Community Development and Prevention Services, played a role on behalf of CAS Toronto in the development and management of the Project.
The project involved:

• Organizing information events for Somali parents where they could learn about the mandate and services of CAS Toronto. Positive Parenting education was also provided by CAS Toronto staff when requested by the parents.

• Opportunities for members of the Somali community to educate and inform CAS Toronto staff about the history, culture, religion and parenting practices of Somali families.

• Staff from the Somali serving agencies accompanying CAS Toronto workers on visits to Somali families, especially families first coming into contact with CAS Toronto.

This was very helpful for the family who could speak in their own language to someone present who understood the Somali culture and who had been trained to help the family navigate the child welfare system. The Project staff from the three Somali serving agencies also made themselves available to accompany parents to medical and other appointments and to attend Family Court with parents.

• The three Somali community agencies working together with others in the community developed plans for Somali children/youth placed in foster care to be returned to the community where Somali relatives or community members made themselves available to care for them.

• Recruiting staff, foster parents and volunteers from the Somali community. The three Somali agency partners helped CAS Toronto organize community outreach through the local Somali radio station. Four shows were aired focusing on CAS Toronto – what services it provided and its interest in recruiting Somali community members to apply for employment, to foster, adopt or become kin families or to become volunteers.

As a result of this Project and the contacts made within the Somali community, CAS Toronto became a partner along with the Somali Youth Association of Toronto and Midaynta to access funding for a Somali Youth Project.

The goal of the Project was to reach out to and engage Somali youth, especially those in high school, to support their settlement process and to help them remain in school. Somali youth were hired to staff theProject. A major achievement of the Proect was the development of the Somali Youth Awards, which has become an annual event recognizing Somali youth who have made a significant contribution to the Somali and Toronto community. Sharron Richards acted as the CAS Toronto liaison to the Project.

Q2. What is the greatest need of the Somali community or any other newcomer community in Toronto, in terms of raising children according to C.A.S standards?

A: All parents, regardless of where they’ve come from, experience challenges in raising their children. Parenting is not usually a job for which we receive any formal education, yet is one of life’s most important jobs. Parents who are newcomers to Canada too often face numerous challenges that create great stresses on families and can interfere with their ability to parent.

For Somalie e parents, as for many newcomer parents, the list of these challenges is long and typically includes:

• leaving their place of birth to escape civil war and/or political oppression that placed the safety of their children and themselves at risk

• dealing with education, health, child welfare, justice and social assistance systems

• losing loved ones and family members in war and tribal conflict

• living in a refugee camp

• leaving all that is known and familiar to come to a country where everything is new and unfamiliar

• not being able to speak English or speaking it as a second language

• unable to find employment that matches their credentials or not finding employment at all

• parenting children/youth who quickly become familiar with their rights as well as their new city and culture, leading to differing expectations between them and their parents

• continuing to experience the impact of the trauma associated with war and migrating to a new country on their physical and mental health and their capacity to parent

• a reversal of the traditional roles of women and men as parents, with women being employed outside the home while men remain unemployed

• women finding themselves raising families as single parents

• youth dropping out of school

• youth becoming involved in the youth justice system and in gangs

• children, youth and parents experiencing racism, Islamaphobia and oppression.

The Somali community has been identified as one of the racialized and newcomer communities experiencing a disproportionally higher rate of poverty than non-racialized communities, even those who have migrated to Toronto.

Q3. How has your Bridging Diversity Committee initiative did help the community’s ability to access C.A.S services?

A: In September, 2000, CAS Toronto established the Bridging Diversity Committee. The membership included senior managers and supervisors from across the agency, as well as members of some of Toronto’s ethno-specific communities.

As a member of the Committee from its inception, A. A. Sabriye, working for Family Service Toronto, helped CAS Toronto staff understand the history, culture, religion migration experiences of Somali families and how it influenced parenting practices. He also helped CAS Toronto staff better understand how their intervention with Somali families were being experienced and perceived by the families.

CAS Toronto staff helped educate the community members of the Committee to better understand child welfare legislation, provincial government policies, standards and guidelines that directed and guided how services were to be delivered and the range of services offered by the agency to children, youth and families. This allowed the community members to provide accurate information when approached by community parents, service providers and leaders.

The Committee influenced a change in agency hiring practice to allow for easier access to agency employment for foreign trained workers in order to diversify its work force; helped members develop trust and confidence in each other as they began to seek out each other out for consultation and advice; and developed and received Board of Directors approval in November 2006, for a ground breaking
Anti-Oppression, Anti-Racism Policy. Full implementation of the policy is underway and involves a comprehensive anti-oppression, anti-racism organizational change process involving all staff, foster parents and volunteers, including the Board of Directors. The Bridging Diversity Committee continues to play an important role in policy implementation by addressing a number of issues related to the services provided to children, youth and families from an increasingly diverse number of communities, including the Somali community.

Q4. What are some of the challenges that C.A.S Toronto has faced in helping the Somali Community?

A. Similar to newcomer Somali families who were unfamiliar with CAS Toronto, in the beginning, CAS Toronto staff, foster parents and volunteers were unfamiliar with Somali children, youth , families and community.

This was a new community that was unknown and unfamiliar to CAS Toronto. While Somali parentshadn’t previously come into contact with a legislated child welfare service, many, if not most, came to Canada having heard about CAS from someone along their journey here. In some cases they were advised to avoid CAS at all costs and unfortunately parents were too often provided with inaccurate information about what the role and services provided by a CAS. For many Somali families, their fear of CAS Toronto and belief that contacting our agency would result in losing their children, became a barrier to Somali families getting help when they first needed it. Often this would create so much stress for families that by the time CAS Toronto got involved, it became very difficult to help the children, youth and parents work out their problems.

It was also difficult for CAS Toronto to help parents overcome those fears when language was a barrier and unfamiliarity with each other became such a challenge.

In the Canadian and Ontario context, the rights afforded children and youth may have felt to Somali parents as undermining their role and responsibility as parents. CAS Toronto sometimes found itself caught in the middle of needing to balance the rights of Somali child/youth with those of their parents. It was often misunderstood by Somali parents, as well as the Somali community, that CAS Toronto’s obligation to comply with the Child and Family Services Act as well as other legislation protecting children/youth’s rights, limited its ability to “change the rules” and to do as parents and the community wished them to do.

CAS Toronto was also challenged in placing Somali children /youth removed from the care of their parents into Somali and/or Muslim foster homes because there were no Muslim foster homes in which to place them. While individual families as well as the Somali community were critical of the agency for not placing their children/youth in Muslim foster homes, for many valid reasons Somali and /or Muslim families were not coming forward to become foster families. At one time, when the first Somali families became agency foster families, they were not well received by the community because they were perceived as undermining and interfering with other Somali parents whose children were placed in their homes. CAS Toronto found itself significantly challenged when this happened and were left to wonder if and how they would ever be able to match Somali children with Somali foster families. I’m happy to report that we currently have Somali foster families who are accepted and supported by the Somali community.

Language is a significant challenge for CAS Toronto staff, foster parents and volunteers in serving Somali children, youth and families. Most do not speak Somali and for most Somali parents, English is not their first language. CAS Toronto also recognized the challenge experienced by Somali parents whose children/youth became more proficient in English than themselves.

Parents often had to rely on their children/youth as interpreters which placed both the parents and the child/youth in difficult and vulnerable positions. CAS Toronto has chosen to not ask children/youth to interpret for their parents and instead we hire interpreters when required.

Q5. Does CA.S Toronto consider cultural values of Immigrants in terms of raising children?

A: A person’s culture and the values associated with it, significantly influence one’s parenting practices. In order to provide a useful and appropriate service to families, CAS Toronto staff, foster families and volunteers must understand the cultural context of those families. What may appear to be a questionable parenting practice may become understandable once the cultural context and values of the parents are known. And while culture and cultural values vary, CAS Toronto understands that the abuse and neglect of children/youth is rarely, if ever, publicly sanctioned in any culture. That said, we also understand that the abuse and maltreatment of children/youth can be and is, subtly and not so subtly condoned, when people allow it to go unaddressed.

It is equally important for CAS Toronto staff, foster parents and volunteers to be aware of how their own cultural and religious values affect how they see and interact with others and the families they serve.

The agency’s Anti-Oppression, Anti-Racism Policy asks that they develop an awareness and appreciation of how one’s personal identity, which includes such things as race, gender, culture, religion, education, sexual orientation, gender identity, economic status, marital status, legal status, age and disability, contributes to and influences how one experiences/is experienced, perceives/is perceived and interacts with others. It is important that they understand how a family’s culture and values may differ from their own and see those differences as strengths upon which to build and enhance parenting capacity.

Q6. Did C.A.S Toronto share with other newcomer communities, in any of the experience learned, working with Somali Community?

A: Considerable information about the Bridging Child Welfare Services to the Somali Community Project has been shared with other newcomer communities interested in developing a similar collaboration with CAS Toronto.

Q7. Tell us your experience in addressing what every newcomer community needs to know in raising children in Canada?

A. All parents want to be the best parent they can be. They want to make sure their children/youth are given every opportunity to realize their full potential and to grow up to become happy, healthy and successful adults. Parenting is one of, if not the most, challenging, difficult and rewarding jobs any of us will ever experience. And like all other jobs where e we look for help to do the best job we can, parents also need help raising their children. That help can come in many forms, including help from professionals such as child welfare workers.

An important way to help newcomer parents is to ensure that all parents coming to Canada and Ontario are provided with information about provincial child welfare legislation that describes what will happen when children/youth are abused and/or neglected. It is neither realistic or fair to expect parents to comply with the legislation if they don’t know anything about it. It would be helpful if they were provided with this information before they come to Canada as well as after they arrive. CAS Toronto is aware of the need to educate parents about what’s expected of them and how we can help them when and if they need our help. We also know that the best way to get that information to Somali parents is by working together with Somali serving agencies, Mosque’s, community leaders and the local Somali media

Q8. With regard to child rearing in the Canadian context, how does C.A.S Toronto help the newcomer communities?

A. I think that question has been largely answered in the first question. However, I would like to add that currently, out of a desire and commitment to better serve Muslim children, youth and families, CAS Toronto meets regularly with a group of agencies serving the Muslim community. One of the initiatives the group would like to undertake is community education and awareness for Muslim parents. Plans are underway for reaching out to and engaging with Imams and principals of Islamic schools to invite them to work with CAS Toronto to educate Muslim parents about the child welfare system, as well as approaches to Positive Parenting.

Q9. The reason I am asking you this last question has to with the fact that I have heard from parents whose children were removed from their home say “if I had only known the Canadian law, I wouldn’t have hit my child?

A. That doesn’t surprise me. I think it speaks to the confusion that exists between what parents describe as discipline and what constitutes physical abuse as defined in child welfare legislation. Very unfortunately, Canadian law allows for children/youth to be hit by adults as a form of discipline but with specific restrictions as to how the hitting can be done. Ontario child welfare legislation addresses when children are physically abused by an adult.

The message CAS Toronto would like to convey to parents is that there are other, more effective ways to be a responsible parent and to appropriately discipline your child than hitting them. Research is telling us that hitting children is ineffective, may lead to the use of more forceful hitting as it becomes less and less effective and become abuse and has lasting negative results in how children/youth see themselves and how they learn to handle frustration and conflict as adults. If we teach children that the way to resolve a problem or get e e people to do what we want is to hit them, we shouldn’t be surprised when they use the same method as teenagers and adults.

Q10. What did the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto do in order to work collaboratively with the Somali community?

A. First we listened to the issues of concern parents and community leaders raised about how Somali families experienced our involvement with them. Second, we engaged the Somali community and its leaders and agencies to actively address these concerns. Next we designated staff, particularly one staff, who the Somali community came to trust because they knew she had access to the Executive Director, could help the community navigate CAS Toronto as well as other service systems to make things happen and who they believed understood their community and respected its many strengths.
Hiring Somali staff and recruiting Somali foster families and volunteers also helped to demonstrate the agency’s commitment to better serve the community.
The Project described in question 1 are good examples of how CAS Toronto collaborated with the Somali community. Two more also need to be noted

• A current collaboration is the New Horizons Healing & Hope Coalition, of which I am the chairperson. The Coalition works in collaboration with a number of ethno-specific communities, including the Somali community, to provide groups to help children aged 5-12, youth aged 13-18 and parents/care providers heal from the traumatic effects of war, political conflict and the pre and post migration to Canada experience. Midaynta is one of the Coalition partners, having sponsored several children’s groups and planning to soon offer a youth group and later this year a parent/care provider group.

• The Child & Youth Mentoring Development Program engages and encourages youth through sports to a) complete high school and set future goals for their post secondary education and b) not become involved in criminal activities and gangs. Said Dirie, a CAS Toronto Community Development Worker located in our Etobicoke Branch is working to support and assist the community volunteers organizing the Program. Approximately 40 youth attend the program on a weekly basis.

Sharron Richards

Children's Aid Society

director of Community Development & Prevention Services