The Child and Family All Nations Coordinated Response Network (ANCR) became a mandated agency on February 3, 2007 and assumed responsibility for all intake and emergency child and family services in Winnipeg, Headingley, and East and West St. Paul, Manitoba. The decision to establish ANCR was one element of larger systemic reforms resulting from the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry-Child Welfare Initiative.
ANCR operates as a non-profit, independent agency mandated under the Southern First Nations Network of Care, governed by a Board of Directors and managed by an Executive Director and senior management team. Our mandate is the provision of culturally appropriate, high quality intake services by a qualified and skilled staff team in accordance with the Child and Family Services Act of Manitoba, the Child and Family Authorities Act of Manitoba and the Federal legislation, An Act Respecting First Nations, Inuit and Metis children, youth and families, and all associated regulations and standards.
Culturally Appropriate Services
The Indigenous population of Winnipeg is about 11% of the total population. In the child welfare context, more than 70% of the children and families now utilizing ANCR's services in Winnipeg are Indigenous. It is this overrepresentation that drives ANCR's strategies to alter the cycles and to contribute to systemic change. ANCR's service model includes a strong emphasis on the provision of culturally appropriate services to meet the needs of children and their families. Part of this emphasis is to enact human resource policies and recruitment practices that build a workforce reflective of the cultural backgrounds of the children and families that ANCR serves.
A Representative Workforce and Cultural Safety of Children and Families
Along with an increasingly representative workforce, ANCR has advanced preventative programs with strong cultural base, and assessment and investigation processes which consider the cultural safety of children and families, and value their cultural context as strength. ANCR incorporates both Indigenous and non-Indigenous representation on the Board of Directors, with representation from all four CFS Authorities.
