Funding For Kids in Care

Monday, June 19, 2006 01:00 PM

Minister of Children and Families, Stan Hagen, announces funding for Aboriginal children in foster care

Of all the children in foster care in the province, one half come from aboriginal families. Minister of Children and Families, Stan Hagen says many of the children grow up strangers to their culture and heritage, that is why the Province is providing a one time grant of half a million dollars to help aboriginal children learn more about their cultural heritage.

The funding will be used to help reconnect Aboriginal children to their communities, culture and extended families.

"I think there's an inherent need for all of us to connect to who we are and where we come from" says Barb Ward-Burkitt, Executive Director of the Prince George Native Friendship Centre. She would like to see some funding for a "Welcome Home Camp" for urban youth. Such projects have been successful in re-introducing children to culture and family on the reserve, but there is nothing available to bring youth in urban settings closer to their cultural hertiage.

The money will be administered by the First Peoples' Cultural Foundation in Victoria, on behalf of delegated agencies and communities in the North Region. Communities can apply for up to $10,000 in special project funding.

Minister Hagen says this is a first step in having "programs delivered by aboriginal people in aboriginal communities, they would be programs developed by the aboriginal communities."

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Posted on Monday, June 19, 2006 01:00 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: REALIST on June 19 2006 6:02 PM

It must kill "STAN THE SLASHER" to give away money. Let us never forget those disabled who commited suicide over Stan's reassessment of the disabled when he was the Minister of Human Resources. His hands are covered in blood

Posted by: duffer on June 19 2006 7:13 PM

Get a life Realist. Where I am from families look after their own kids. I have three children I looked after myself. I am getting sick and tired of all the handouts to look after other people's kids because they don't want them. If you don't want kids, don't have them.

Posted by: REALIST on June 19 2006 7:58 PM

I never said anything about having kids. Please get back on your meds. You might then be able to focus on what your reading and control what you say to others.

Posted by: Chester on June 19 2006 9:50 PM

We cannot expect a generation of people who didn't have parents, know how to be a parent or raise kids.

How many young native children were removed from their homes and put into residential schools for most of their adolescent years? Too many. We can't blame them for not knowing how to raise kids.

This problem will take many more generations to sort out. Heck, we are fighting a national battle in Canada to fight to save the family. Our whole country is in jeopardy of losing it's family identity unless those of us who value it stand up to protect it. Chester

Posted by: REALIST on June 19 2006 11:11 PM

I agree Chester. While it would be nice if we lived in a world where all children are born into a loving family who could afford to raise their children, sadly the reality is that this is nothing more than a pipe dream. Posts like duffer's serve to highlight the rage felt by those who can not understand that sadly many children are born to those unprepared to deal with what they have created. David Letterman once said that the average person was closer to Beavis and Butthead then we would like to admmit, and asking humans to be cautious when having sex seems to be no different than putting a male and female dog (unfixed) together and asking them to not have puppies. The theory would be nice but, the reality just does not work this way. Perhaps duffers rage comes from the frustration he/she feels at having to raise children that he/she did not want or the frustration of the knowledge that the partner they chose was not what they expected in the way of a fellow parent. I feel pity for their situation, but he/she made the choice to have kids and now they must live in hatred of a society that choses to protect vulnerable children.What a terrible way to live.

Posted by: duffer on June 20 2006 8:56 AM

Actually, my wife and I have a very good relationship and have been together well over 20 years with equal sharing of the child raising. We have a mortgage and other bills to pay like any other family. I guess you could say we are a "normal family". My problem is we keep paying more and more taxes all the time for what? To put the taxes into day care for others, or grants for this and that, makes absolutely no sense to me. A lot of people have free access to health care but birth control does not seem to be an option for them. If you are going to compare them to dogs and cats then perhaps they should be forced to take some kind of action so they don't have offspring.

Posted by: Chester on June 20 2006 7:43 PM

Well Duffer, we have allowed the rights and freedoms of a few to dictate our current form of birth control for many. (Abortion) This is not my idea of a solution.

You can get an abortion quicker than angioplasti after a heart attack. Chester

Posted by: thereasonableman on June 20 2006 11:55 PM

I think that whether for good or for bad, it is one more case of the Govie deciding what is best for natives. They are still having their lives run by the government, one way or the other. It has been decided that this program is what they need now, and resistance is futile, they WILL be assimilated.
:-0