Support Services
The Support Services Program provides assistance to other internal child welfare units.
The largest area of Support Services is provided to the staff of the Children’s Services and Protection Services units within the Child Welfare Program. Support such as completing transportation requirements of children, one-on-one support for a child, access, and/or other tasks, are the most usual and are completed by casual Prime Workers.
The second area of Support Services is assisting the staffed foster homes within the Child Welfare Program. Support in this area requires providing casual Residential Workers to enter a staffed foster home in order to provide shift coverage when the full time staff are not at work due to illness or vacation. There are also a small number of requests from other internal services which the Support Services Program tries to accommodate, whenever possible.
The Alternative Care Service consists of establishing and maintaining a network of alternative caregivers within the city of Thunder Bay, as well as throughout the District. When a child needs an alternative caregiver as a result of problems or challenges that are taking place within the child’s family, the Alternative Care Service identifies an alternative placement for the child. Alternative placements may include customary care homes, kinship care homes and/or foster homes.
The Alternative Care Service provides the following to the alternative caregivers:
- Recruitment and assessment
- Pre-service and in-service training
- Placement
- Support
- Financial assistance
