C6: Parenting Children and Youth, the Role of the Children’s Aid Society and of Service Providers
The purpose of this training is to provide participants with an ability to understand and address the challenges that newcomer families experience in relation to parenting their children. Child protection services are becoming involved with numerous newcomer families. Many families have experiences of trauma, dislocation, loss, victims of genocide, war, and torture. Pre-migration experiences and the considerable challenges of settling into a new country can affect family well-being and parenting practices.
The workshop aims to provide knowledge of the Children’s Aid Society’s (CAS) role and the challenges it faces in maintaining its legal obligation in keeping children safe within the family system. The training allows participants to discuss different forms of abuse and neglect that children and youth may experience in their intimate or dependent relationships. The workshop will examine and focus on issues such as, the rights of parents, challenges of cross-cultural counselling and on how to deal with sexual abuse disclosure. Participants will discuss their role as service providers, responsibility regarding duty to report, difficulty and uncertainty in relating to sexual abuse disclosure by youth, cultural competency, and the role of inter-agency relationships in providing effective support to newcomer families.
Inderjit Grewal (M.S.W) has extensive experience in the field of domestic violence and child abuse. Inderjit is currently a Child Protection Worker with the Halton Children’s Aid Society, and previously worked with the Windsor-Essex Children’s Aid Society as a Family Service Worker, Diversity Manager, and Case Aide Supervisor. Inderjit has also worked with Hiatus House, a shelter for abused women, and as a University of Windsor Social Work department instructor. Inderjit has conducted numerous workshops in the community and with OCASI regarding domestic violence, elder abuse, stress and vicarious trauma, wellness and self-care, and assessment and intervention skills for families.
