OUR DIRECTION
Our Teams
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Youth Prevention Team
Team Lead - Jackie Merritt
The Youth Team is a support network grounded in land based activities with teachings shared by the nłeʔkepmx & sylix Framework and Captlkwl Ethic Agreement. Each Support Worker utilizes their strength in different areas of expertise including wellness, culture, and community connection. Our youth support programs include outreach, one on one support, community collaboration, a transition program, and cultural connections. Our day-to-day tasks could range from connecting to young people in town or in a community, taking young people sage picking or paddle boarding, sharing resources and programs with young people, to even connecting and transporting them to programs.
Community collaboration involves supporting each of the five local bands in youth programs to expand services and help with facilitating events, such as a girls and boys group, community events like the residential survivors walk or grief and loss workshops
Child and Youth Mental Health Team
Team Lead - Amy McKibbon
Child and Youth Mental Health (CYMH) Services are voluntary and provided on a consensual basis, where each child, young person, and family are provided with Indigenous CYMH services that are unique and sensitive to their needs. Our program is built with a combination both Western and Indigenous knowledge and teachings with trauma informed practice counselling techniques incorporated, such as: art and play therapy.
We use cultural practices such as traditional language, prayer, smudging, teachings of the medicine wheel and crafts, which can be in conjunction with western methods to enhance teachings. Our practice is to cultivate safe spaces and to recognize the role and importance of family systems.
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Finance Team
Team Lead - Misty Paquette
The finance team covers a wide range of services provided both to other Scw'exmx Child and Family Services Society (SCFSS) teams, and the communities we serve. Internally they perform the finance accounting and reporting, payroll, pension administration, budgeting, and report auditing.
Child Wellness Team
Team Lead - Natasha Thys
The Child Wellness Team is inclusive of culture, language and ceremony in our daily practice with each child, family and community. We collaborate with other community supports and services that reflect the cultural values and beliefs of each child, young person, and family. Our social workers are actively engaged with communities to build stronger working relationships which support families to thrive and embrace their culture & language. By doing this we build trusting relationships through best practice in accordance with the nłeʔkepmx/syilx ways of being. Our team reviews incoming concerns and work with families when they need ongoing support. The team also include a reunification coordinator to ensure the preservation and reunification of family units while emphasizing preventative measures.
The Social Work Team uses best practice where each Team member strives to work collectively under the following practice frameworks:
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nlaka’pamux Framework of Practice and CAptlkw] Ethic Agreement
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Working Agreements with the 5 Communities
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An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families
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Child, Family, and Community Service Act
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Aboriginal Policy and Practice Framework in British Columbia
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Aboriginal Operational & Practice Standards & Indicators
Community Team
Team Lead -
The Community Team was created to align with our strategic directions which emphasize our nation’s inherent rights and the importance of community guidance. Our work focuses on engagement and interaction with our five (5) Member Communities, the Urban Indigenous population of the Nicola Valley, community service partners, agencies, Elders and Knowledge Keepers. This includes communication and presentations, facilitating engagement meetings, supporting community prevention activities (and urban prevention activities), and working with our communities on how to best support their inherent right to self-governance and decision making over children and families, whether that be through new protocol agreements, grandparent groups, or planning for the implementation of their own laws over children and family.
Culture and Language Team
Team Lead - Lucinda Seward
This team includes Knowledge Keepers from all our communities and consists of Cultural Program Coordinators, Resident Elders, and the language nest program.
The Culture and Language Team work within community, with families, young people, and with our staff. Within the Society providing support, supporting language usage, supporting and leading activities, and working directly with our families. They also develop and implements staff cultural training and cultural events for our families and communities.
One of the foundations of SCFSS is to center the culture of our communities, and it is the role of the Culture and Language Team to incorporate Culture and Language into all programs and services
Emergency Services Team
Team Lead - Kristy Joe
The Emergency Services Team was created to better respond to these unprecedented times. SCFSS and the communities are still recovering from forest fires, the COVID pandemic, 215 announcement and opioid crisis. We assist in the prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response and recovery of emergencies we have been faced with, working in collaboration with other SCFSS teams and organizations.
Family Wellness Team
Team Lead -
This team encompasses Family Wellness Navigators, a Relationship Navigator, and Family Circle Coordinators. Each navigator works with approximately 10-12 families. They create self-directed wellness plans with the focus on building healthy families in addressing their unique differences and barriers. They also support the men’s group and women’s group. The Family Circle coordinators support the gathering and facilitating of a family circle to support families in creating their own family plans in addressing a family concern or emergency. This prevents decisions being imposed onto the family and allows them to make plans for themselves including their extended family and support people.
Resource Team
Team Lead - Diana Norgaard
This team encompasses Family Wellness Navigators, a Relationship Navigator, and Family Circle Coordinators. Each navigator works with approximately 10-12 families. They create self-directed wellness plans with the focus on building healthy families in addressing their unique differences and barriers. They also support the men’s group and women’s group. The Family Circle coordinators support the gathering and facilitating of a family circle to support families in creating their own family plans in addressing a family concern or emergency. This prevents decisions being imposed onto the family and allows them to make plans for themselves including their extended family and support people.
Community Relations Team
Team Lead - Kristen Stewart
This team encompasses Family Wellness Navigators, a Relationship Navigator, and Family Circle Coordinators. Each navigator works with approximately 10-12 families. They create self-directed wellness plans with the focus on building healthy families in addressing their unique differences and barriers. They also support the men’s group and women’s group. The Family Circle coordinators support the gathering and facilitating of a family circle to support families in creating their own family plans in addressing a family concern or emergency. This prevents decisions being imposed onto the family and allows them to make plans for themselves including their extended family and support people.