Notes from the regular meeting, which was held on Wednesday, November 20, 2024.
Ontario’s Child Welfare Services sector need for funding
The Township of Blandford-Blenheim Council unanimously showed its support for the Children’s Aid Society of Oxford County and its request to the provincial government to provide adequate funding for Children’s Aid Societies and Indigenous Child and Family Well-Being Agencies.
In a letter from the Children’s Aid Society of Oxford County to the Safe and Well Oxford Steering Committee, child welfare agencies across the province, like other publicly funded services, are facing significant funding challenges.
“Despite providing communities with services designed to protect children and youth and to offer support to vulnerable families, agencies are not receiving adequate funding, nor does the funding formula truly align with best practices and service principles (i.e., early intervention, prevention, continued connections to kin, community, and culture) as set out in the Child Welfare Redesign framework,” reads the letter from Tina Diamond, executive director of Children’s Aid Society of Oxford County. “We are calling on Ontario to bring greater financial stability and sustainability to the child welfare sector by ensuring that agencies are provided with enough funding to deliver high-quality, trauma-informed, culturally relevant care and develop an updated funding formula that truly prioritizes early intervention, prevention, and continued connections to kin, community, and culture.”
Diamond’s letter goes on to state that “the provincial child welfare allocation assigned to Oxford County has decreased by 2.9 million dollars (-17.5%) over the last ten years, despite acknowledgement that families, children and youth are experiencing unprecedented challenges.”
The letter also says the while the Ministry of Children, Community, and Social services promised to reform the funding formula in 2020 as part of Child Welfare Redesign, “to date, there has been no meaningful progress despite two specific consultations with sector leadership wherein recommendations were submitted, and months of sector and Ministry collaboration occurring in a joint task force designed to make child and family focused changes.”
To read the letter and learn more about the need for adequate funding, visit: https://pub-woodstock.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=2121
Safe and Well Oxford Community Safety and Well-being Plan
Council unanimously endorsed, in principle, the Safe and Well Oxford Community Safety and Well-being Plan – Inclusion Charter, and directed staff to provide an implementation workplan for approval.
The report from Josh Brick, CAO for Blandford-Blenheim, and Sarah Matheson, Blandford-Blenheim Clerk, noted that after legislative amendments to the 1990 Police Services Act came into effect on January 1, 2019, the amendments required every municipality, including lower-tier municipalities and regional municipalities throughout the province, to prepare and adopt a community safety and well-being plan.
“The legislation required that municipalities work in partnership with police services and other sectors including health/mental health, education, community/social services and children/youth services throughout their planning process. Adoption of the Community Safety and Well-being Plan was required by July 1, 2021 (extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic),” the report stated.
Oxford County CAOs, Clerks and Treasurers met and discussed the requirements of the legislation in June of 2019 and the consensus was that the lower-tier municipalities within the County wished to work together to develop a joint plan.
Both a Coordinating Committee (made up of the Clerks from each of the participating municipalities) as well as an Advisory Committee, were created to inform and guide the information gathering process, community consultation and recommendation stages of the project.
“Each participating municipality within the County allocated $10,000 towards the development of the Plan to hire a consultant to work with the Advisory Committee to make recommendations, organize the information gathered and develop the plan for the lower-tier municipalities within Oxford,” read the report. “This was approved by all area municipal Councils by resolution in the Fall of 2019.”
Working alongside Anne Becker, CEO of Climb Consulting Inc., and Linday Sage, senior strategist and co-CEO of Sagecomm, the Coordinating Committee began working on the development of the Community Safety and Well-being Plan in January 2020.
The goal of the plan is to achieve sustainable communities where “everyone feels safe, has a sense of belonging, opportunities to participate, and where individuals and families are able to meet their needs for education, health care, food, housing, income, and social and cultural expression,” read the report.
Several Community engagement activities were later done to identify community priority risks including: an environmental scan, focus groups with over 150 participants, an online community survey where over 1,300 people participated, a youth focused community survey and one-on-one interviews with local subject matter experts.
As a result of the process, as well as the environmental scan, the Advisory Committee identified four priority risks to be the focus of the plan for Oxford County including:
• Mental Health
• Affordable Housing
• Substance Misuse and Addictions
• Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
The Safe and Well Oxford Community Safety and Well-being Plan was presented to all Oxford area municipal Councils in May and June of 2021, and the plan was approved by the Township of Blandford-Blenheim.
In regards to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) specifically, the following goals were established and approved within the plan:
1. Establish an EDI Action Coalition to develop an evidence-informed, thoughtful and sensitive Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, including an Inclusion Charter, for all communities across Oxford County.
“An Action Coalition will bring together area municipalities, the County, police services, health care organizations and providers, school boards, businesses, social service providers, and agencies with a shared commitment to ensuring our communities are welcoming and inclusive for all,” read the report. “Most importantly the Action Coalition will engage community members representing the many differences across the County to ensure ‘no one is left behind.’”
2. Develop, support, and promote community awareness and education campaigns to improve public understanding of racial and social justice and the individual and community impacts of stigma and discrimination.”
The Inclusion Charter was presented to Blandford-Blenheim Council on June 5, 2024 and Township staff have since had the opportunity to review the plan and discuss the next steps in regards to implementation.
“It is important to note that the Charter states: we encourage partner organizations to adopt or adapt to this Inclusion Charter and implement its values and principles according to their current needs and resources,” read the report. “The Charter provides guiding principles for municipalities in fostering inclusive communities and workplaces.”
Through endorsement of the Inclusion Charter in principle, the Township of Blandford-Blenheim will demonstrate a commitment to implementing as many items that are applicable and attainable within the plan.
As far as next steps go, Township staff will begin to create a “Blandford-Blenheim” specific implementation workplan, including budgetary and other operational considerations for objectives outlined within the (approved) plan.
Staff will later provide Council with an update, as well as further progress reports, on the plan in the first quarter of 2025.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
