2016-2017 ANNUAL REPORT

SAFE CHILDREN.

CONFIDENT YOUTH.

RESILIENT ADULTS.

The year began with an air of great change, the changes are outlined in a paper titled Call to Action which encompassed 9 areas of improvement for the field. The Call to Action was a response to the community’s demand for an improved and accountable child welfare system in Ontario. The direction of the paper has meant a shift away from independent organizations to one of a system. The paper is based on the field of child welfare in Ontario working together to improve our governance; to be more culturally responsive; to examine our structure; and to deliver a quality service by continuous improvement of both staff and service. The change to working as a whole system combined with many areas that need attention resulted in us being involved in more change than at any time in recent history.

Huron-Perth Children’s Aid Society met the challenge of change and worked hard as a Board and an organization to contribute to these initiatives. However it did create a time of uncertainty and resource pressure that had us in a state of unknown. The field realized that the rate of change may not need to be as rapid as first thought. As a result three initiatives rose to the top; Shared Services for Child Welfare, One Vision One Voice, and our response to the African Canadian Community and Reconciliation with the Indigenous Nations.

The Board in addition to responding to these external demands was involved in a revitalization of its Strategic Plan which resulted in a confirmation of the directions set four years ago. In conjunction with the Board activities, the management group spent time in developing a set of operational principles to help themselves implement the strategic directions. Both of these activities have set the stage for the development of new objectives for the next 4 years.

On a local level we continue to work on improving our service to children and families. This led to us redesigning our referral and intake system to make it more consistent and responsive across the agency. We examined our Kinship program to ensure it was meeting the needs of the community. This resulted in embedding a principle of looking at a family’s entire system for supports to help the family provide for the child in a safe and healthy environment. Further, we looked at our admission and placement behavior in an effort to make sure children’s needs are met in the best environment possible. We also spent time examining workload so that in determining resources we can make the best fit between demand and fiscal responsibility.

We have had a busy year with both demands placed on us externally and internally. All our work is guided by a principle of serving children and their families, and making our service better. This included our struggles to operate within our budget. The budget struggles were driven by the placement of children in resources outside of our own system. While we work hard to place children in family based environments, we saw an increase in the use of resources outside our system. To offset this increased cost we reviewed our expenditures to find efficiencies that would not compromise service yet allow us to balance our budget. With the hard work of our management staff and support from our staff group we managed to make many changes which didn’t allow us to balance but did shrink the deficit to less than one percent of our overall budget.

The Child Protection Information Network (CPIN) was also on our agenda with a forecasted start-up of summer 2018-19. We have begun our planning for implementation with the development of a committee to oversee the project and looking at plans for staffing the project. Although it is in its early stages it has been clearly identified that it will have a significant impact on our organization for many years to come. Many of these impacts will benefit the organization and others will create challenges.

It has been a very busy and full year with many challenges, these were offset by all the successes and the dedication of all those connected to the organization. The year was one of meeting the challenges and turning them into benefits for the organization. None of this would have been possible without dedicated staff, committed managers, leaderful Directors and finally, a visionary Board. Thank you to all.

Board Chair – Janet CullitonExecutive Director – Shaun Jolliffe

Executive Message

The Huron-Perth Children’s Aid Society currently has 75 foster homes to service the needs of 133 children in care. Similar to other child welfare agencies across the province and nationally there has been a decline in people willing to open their homes to children and youth with challenging behaviors.

The development of the Concurrent foster program (dual approved homes that foster to adopt) makes up 29 of the 75 foster homes in the system. However, 22 of the Concurrent homes are either full or on hold which means they are unavailable to receive children.

The Huron-Perth CAS has developed a recruitment committee that meets quarterly to “brainstorm” strategies to address the placement needs of the agency. There is a significant need for homes that can receive sibling groups and older children aged 12 to 18 and children with some behavioural challenges due to their childhood experiences.

The Huron-Perth CAS is looking for caregivers that have a genuine interest in children; will provide stability and safety to a child or youth; will advocate for a child’s/youth’s needs and be committed to the overall wellbeing of a child or youth. Applicants can be single, married, same sex, and from a variety of cultures and ethnicities.

Make a Difference. Be the Difference!

“If a community values its children, it must cherish their parents.” (Bowlby, 1951)

Since 1992, the Huron-Perth Children’s Aid Society has been receiving funding through Stratford Social Services to support families in our community. The project began with converting a unit at the townhouse complex on Franklin Drive in Stratford for use as a community center. On-site programming continues today and seen as a tool of prevention before a family is in crisis.

The project has expanded throughout Perth County and includes parent education programs for anyone in the community. Programs include parent/child interaction, parent education for parents of children birth to teen years and life skills. Two of our newest programs include “Raising a Digital Generation” and “For the Sake of My Kids” (single and co-parenting).

A new partnership with the Early Years Centre’s was launched in 2015 and parent education programs were offered in Listowel, Milverton, Monkton and Mitchell. Staff from the Early Years Centre’s provided quality childcare as parents participated in the parenting program. Travelling to these rural locations proved to be successful as programs filled quickly with 12-15 parents participating in each group. Our current statistics reflect that in 2016, we serviced 126 families and 90 children.

The agency also offers “Circle of Security DVD Program” for families currently working with the Society. The Circle of Security is a relationship based early intervention program designed to enhance attachment security between parents and children. This program has been successful in increasing parent skills in observing parent/child interactions and enhancing the capacity of the caregiver to recognize and sensitively responding to children’s needs.

Early intervention is the best way to assist families. We believe that by providing strength based and timely interventions that engages families and community partners will improve the quality of life for parents and children by providing the education/skills to enhance their capacity to care for themselves.

Foster Care Recruitment Needs

Community Programs for Families

Janet Culliton President

Trudy Kernighan Vice President

Suzanne Kelly Secretary

Randy Brown Treasurer

Abby Armstrong

Mike Bellai

Don Campbell

Margaret Cook

Cindy Hamather

Brent Langan

Jane Morton

Marie Parsons

Amy Taylor

Barbara Thomas

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

2016-2017 FINANCIAL REPORT

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A DONATION YOU CAN CONTACT:

HEAD OFFICE • 639 Lorne Avenue E, Stratford, Ontario N5A 6S4 519.271.5290 • Fax: 519.272.0953

BRANCH OFFICE • 413 MacEwan Street, Goderich, Ontario N7A 4M1 519.524.7356 • Fax: 519.524.1541

www.h-pcas.ca

REVENUEProvince of Ontario - Child Welfare $15,799,172

Province of Ontario - Other $389,838

Other Revenue $724,968

$16,913,978

EXPENDITURESHuman Resources $9,853,835Child In Care and Protection Programs $5,104,800Travel $972,887Infrastructure $1,506,392

$17,437,914

Child Welfare Operations For the Year Ended March 31, 2017

2016-2017 Revenue

Province of Ontario -Child Welfare

Province of Ontario -Other

Other Revenue

2016-2017 Expenditures

Human Resources

Child In Care and ProtectionPrograms

Travel

Infrastructure

Total Reports Received, Full Investigation Not Required 1,143Total Families Served 637Total Families Served on a Voluntary basis 363

Average Number of Children in Care 140Total Children Served in Residential Services 234Children Served in a Kinship Service Setting 158

Adoptions Completed (Incl OSW) 8

Average Resource Homes Available 78

HR$7,826,100$1,984,008

$43,727

TAYTargetted SubsidiesCapital Projects

Total $9,853,835

Child Welfare Service Volumes For the Year Ended March 31, 2017

$17,437,914