Actions and Commitments

Call to Action # 1 : Child Welfare (1-5)

Université du Québec à Rimouski École de travail social

June 5, 2024

The bachelor’s degree in social work trains social intervention professionals to work with individuals, groups and communities.

The program trains multi-skilled social workers who are able to think critically and respond to the needs generated by social proboems.

The program leads to the professional title of social worker, issued by the Ordre des travailleurs sociaux et des thérapeutes conjugaux et familiaux du Québec.

School of Social Work Commitment to Truth and Reconciliation

The School of Social Work does not make any explicit commitment to Truth and Reconciliation.

There is one brief generic comment on Indigenous peoples within a list of “minorities” such as francophones, immigrants and anglophones in the objective’s description:

c) Recognize oppressive social relationships, including colonial dynamics and their impact on relations between francophone, Indigenous and anglophone populations.

Baccalauréat en travail social (uqar.ca)

TRC Call to Action # 1

We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to commit to reducing the number of Aboriginal children in care by: 

  1. Monitoring and assessing neglect investigations
  2. Providing adequate resources to enable Aboriginal communities and child-welfare organizations to keep Aboriginal families together where it is safe to do so, and to keep children in culturally appropriate environments, regardless of where they reside.
  3. Ensuring that social workers and others who conduct child-welfare investigations are properly educated and trained about the history and impacts of residential schools.
  4. Ensuring that social workers and others who conduct child-welfare investigations are properly educated and trained about the potential for Aboriginal communities and families to provide more appropriate solutions to family healing.
  5. Requiring that all child-welfare decision makers consider the impact of the residential school experience on children and their caregivers.

Mandatory Course: No. None identified

Some optional classes on Indigenous realities are available.

Baccalauréat en travail social (uqar.ca)

Faculty of Social Work Commitment to Call to Action # 1: 3, 4 and 5: 0 out of 3 = 0%

3History and impact of residential schools (theory)
 No. Not explicitly addressed
4Potential for Aboriginal communities and families to provide more appropriate solutions to family healing (practice)
 No. Not explicitly addressed
5All child welfare decision makers consider the impact of the residential school experience on children and their caregivers
 No. Not explicitly addressed

Compliance with CASWE/ACFTS Statement of Complicity and Commitment to Change

At the May 27th, 2017 Board meeting, the Board of Directors of CASWE-ACFTS committed to ensuring that social work education in Canada contributes to transforming Canada’s colonial reality and approved a “Statement of Complicity and Commitment to Change”. “This is an important step in engaging social work education in the reconciliation process and supporting the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action” affirms CASWE-ACFTS President, Dr. Susan Cadel.
Of the 12 actions articulated in the “Statement of Complicity and Commitment to Change, the following two are directed at Schools of Social Work
7Will encourage institutional members to post a territorial acknowledgement on their School’s website and post a link to the CAUT guide to territorial acknowledgement on the CASWE-ACFTS website to assist Schools with this task
 None posted on School of Social Work website
8Will encourage and support Canadian schools of social work in revising mission statements, governance processes, curriculum, and pedagogy in ways that both advance the TRC recommendations and the overall indigenization of social work education
 Not explicitly addressed
NOTE:
All content has been submitted to the respective faculty for validation to ensure accuracy and currency as of the time of posting. Université du Québec à Rimouski École de travail social DID NOT RESPOND to our correspondence.

Managing Editor: Douglas Sinclair: Publisher, Indigenous Watchdog
Lead Researcher: Julia Dubé