History

As a result of the restructuring of the CFS system under the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry - Child Welfare Initiative, 17 Aboriginal agencies and 2 General Authority agencies are providing ongoing services to children and families in Winnipeg. ANCR was established in 2007 to be the designated intake agency for these agencies operating in the Winnipeg Region.

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.