Truth and Reconciliation:
Interwoven Connections’ Commitments to Indigenous Families and Children
Our guiding principle
Interwoven Connections recognizes that First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children, youth, and families are disproportionately represented in child welfare systems across Canada.
This inequity is rooted in the ongoing impacts of colonization, residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, the Millennial Scoop, and policies that have separated Indigenous children from their families, cultures, communities, and lands.
Our work is grounded in respect for Indigenous rights, cultures, self-determination, and self-governance. It is guided by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, particularly Calls 1–5 on child welfare; the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP); An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families (Bill C-92); and the Ontario Final Agreement. Through this work, we prioritize family preservation and culturally grounded services that honour the rights and distinct identities of Indigenous children, youth, families, and communities.
Land acknowledgement
Our work takes place across many Indigenous territories and treaties across Turtle Island, now known as Canada. We honour the diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples who have cared for and stewarded these waters and lands since time immemorial, and who continue to enrich and shape the communities we are privileged to serve. We acknowledge that no single statement can fully reflect the depth and diversity of the lands we are on, and we commit to ongoing listening, learning, and meaningful steps to reconciliation by walking alongside First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities with humility and respect.
Truth and reconciliation is not a destination, but an ongoing practice. It requires us to take responsibility for what we can change within our work, while also consciously naming and advocating for change in the systems around us.
We have organized our commitments
to reconciliation based on:
What we are working toward:
These commitments fall within our direct influence and shape how we design and deliver our work. We strive to support First Nations, Inuit and Métis caregivers and those raising Indigenous children in ways that honour their identities, cultures, communities and connections.
Create genuinely welcoming spaces.
We work to ensure that First Nations, Inuit and Métis parents, caregivers, and youth experience our programs and gatherings as safe, respectful, and culturally affirming.
Build staff and volunteer knowledge.
We are committed to ongoing learning and education for our teams about the histories, experiences and current realities of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples. This includes learning about residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, the Millennial Scoop and the ongoing harms of Canadian child welfare systems, as well as the ways colonialism continues to shape the lives, families and communities of Indigenous Peoples today.
Support First Nations, Inuit and Métis caregivers through peer networks.
We work to ensure that our peer networks and supporters are understanding of First Nations, Inuit and Métis ways of knowing, community, and family caregiving.
Build meaningful partnerships with Indigenous-led organizations.
We actively seek to build and sustain relationships with Indigenous-led organizations within First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities, including Elders and Knowledge Keepers.
Center Indigenous voices.
We work to amplify First Nations, Inuit and Métis voices and respect their leadership in shaping how their stories, strengths, and experiences are shared. We listen to understand.
Reflect, review, and remain accountable.
We are committed to continually reviewing our policies and programs through a lens of reconciliation and responding meaningfully to feedback.
What we advocate for:
We use our voice, partnerships, and influence to support long-term systemic change, while recognizing that these outcomes depend on systems and structures beyond our direct control.
Indigenous self-determination in child welfare.
In conversations with government and policy makers, we support the principle that decisions affecting Indigenous children and families should be led by First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities and governing bodies.
Equity and inclusion in family leave policies.
Our Time to Attach advocacy aims to ensure kin and customary caregivers have access to equitable employment leave, ensuring policies support diverse family structures fairly.
Supporting cultural connections.
Through our Peer-to-Peer Support Network, we refer families caring for First Nations, Inuit and Métis children and youth to resources and spaces designed to maintain connection to their language, culture, land, and community.
Challenge the overrepresentation of Indigenous children in care.
We acknowledge the overrepresentation of First Nations, Inuit and Métis children in child welfare systems as a symptom of ongoing colonial policy, not a reflection of Indigenous families—and push back against narratives that place blame on families rather than systems.
Our ongoing commitment
This work is an imperfect and ongoing journey, not a status we have achieved. We are committed to continuing it in relationship, with humility and accountability to First Nations, Inuit and Métis families and communities we serve and work alongside.
These commitments are also part of our broader READI+ strategy: Racial Equity, Accessibility, Diversity, Inclusion, plus. READI+ is the lens through which we examine how we support families, develop our people, design our processes, and build relationships. It helps us recognize where gaps exist, whose perspectives may be underrepresented, and how we can continue building more equitable and inclusive practices across our work. READI+ ensures that supporting all families truly means all families, directing attention, skills, and resources where gaps are widest, so no family has to translate themselves to be understood.