The Coalition of Manitoba Cultural Communities for Families came to be in 2017 after many years as the General and Child and Family Services Authority (GA) “Reference Group.”
This Reference Group was formed in 2010 as part of the Canadian General Authority’s New Canadian Awareness and Education Initiative. An initiative designed to increase the ability of cultural communities to have greater impact in the strategy and planning of the New Canadian Initiative.
Over the years, this group of committed cultural community contacts and informal leaders met and developed relationships within the child welfare system, with a view of ensuring community voices would be heard, validated, and respected within policy development and support systems.
Our objective was to create and sustain better child welfare practices for all community families and their children. Through this process, we identified a need to adjust the scope to encompass a broader array of support systems and agencies that communities engage with. We have organized multiple events that have facilitated mutual learning and built community capacity to educate and inform the navigation of complex organizational layers and public policy.
The Coalition continues to focus on creating an open and transparent environment. Membership, roles, and responsibilities remain open and flexible so as to ensure the structure will continually evolve with community needs.
