From the Pembina Valley Online–To someone unfamiliar with Child & Family Services of Central Manitoba (CFSCM), it may appear that the organization’s role is only to intervene in family situations that have reached a breaking point.
In reality, however, the agency’s capacity and reach in the community go much further than that — it also continually develops and offers programming designed to help strengthen families in the Pembina Valley.
“Generally, people see CFS as a child welfare agency, a protection agency, but there are so many things that we do preventatively,” said Michelle Sveistrup, who is the program director of CFS of Central Manitoba.
A crowd favourite: Caring Dads
One of the programs that has seen growing success is CFSCM’s Caring Dads, which offers support to fathers of families experiencing domestic violence.
“The perpetrators of domestic violence are often the dads, not always, but often, and so there’s a specific program [in which fathers] attend in a group session, and they learn about the impacts,” explained Chris Chabbert, the executive director of CFSCM.
She said that a part of the program is sharing information on what constitutes domestic violence, which is knowledge that not everyone has access to.
“Not all families recognize that domestic violence is not just physical violence. It can be about coercive control and how it impacts the kids. Lots of parents aren’t aware how it’s impacting the kids if they think the child hasn’t seen it,” she said.
“[The program] just brings more awareness and more teaching to dads about how to [interact] with their children in healthy ways and how to keep the home safe without violence, and letting them know the difference.”
Implementing a national framework to promote health in families
Caring Dads marks a shift in the approach CFSCM has taken toward helping families navigate domestic violence.
Chabbert said that whereas in the past the method might have been to ask how to keep an offender away from a family to protect children, in reality, this approach wasn’t effective because the measures taken in response sometimes didn’t result in real change.
You’re holding the perpetrator accountable rather than saying, ‘Mom, this guy’s hurting the kids, you’ve got to get him out of the house.’ We recognize it’s bigger than that.
-Chris Chabbert, executive director of CFSCM, on implementing the Safe & Together Model in its work.
She added that even in situations where the agency rules a perpetrator should not be in the home once a file is closed, it still happens anyway.
Even no-contact orders are not always followed.
The trends inspired CFS’s General Authority to adopt a new approach, called the Safe & Together Model, to achieve better, lasting outcomes for families.
According to its website, the international framework “reflects the evidence-informed belief that children in homes impacted by a perpetrator’s behaviour do best when they can remain safe and together with their protective parent.”
Accountability and being realistic
Through the framework, the agency recognizes that when domestic violence occurs, it’s not as simple as removing the perpetrator, which can be difficult due to a number of social, economic, and environmental factors.
Instead, the model incorporates them into the solution.
“You’re holding the perpetrator accountable rather than saying, ‘Mom, this guy’s hurting the kids, you’ve got to get him out of the house.’ We recognize it’s bigger than that,” said Chabbert.
“There are other things going on. Parents struggle because they need help raising kids — it’s hard to do it on your own, or they struggle financially if dad isn’t [around].”
I can’t speak for every dad, but a lot of the dads give really positive feedback. They feel that they’ve been able to have really positive behavioural change to help them address … domestic violence, or if there were abusive behaviours, they’re able to change those behaviours.
-Michelle Sveistrup, CFS program director, on the success of its Caring Dads program.
She added that it can also be frightening, dangerous, and difficult to leave the situation, so the Safe & Together Model is a means of holding the perpetrator accountable and realistically working with a family’s circumstances without laying blame on the protective parent.
The executive director said the agency is also “working hard” to share the model with other community organizations, including the RCMP, local shelters, and the justice system.
‘A lot of the dads give really positive feedback’
Chabbert said that Caring Dads has been running “for a few years now,” and the agency is proud of its success.
“[Dads learn] how to interact with their kids in healthy ways, which is really eye-opening to them, and they take this homework home, and then when they’re with their children, they are trying these new approaches and noticing how it changes the relationship,” said Chabbert.
Sveistrup added that the agency is encouraged by what it hears from the fathers who participate in the program.
“I can’t speak for every dad, but a lot of the dads give really positive feedback. They feel that they’ve been able to have really positive behavioural change to help them address, like Chris said, the domestic violence, or if there were abusive behaviours, they’re able to change those behaviours,” she said.
“That’s a benefit to the family.”
In the end, the program fits into CFSCM’s desire to work alongside families to build healthy structures.
“We’re working with [the dads], we’re not making decisions for them. We’re kind of walking alongside them to help them address their issues,” said Sveistrup.
The potential to expand a valuable community resource
Right now, Caring Dads is largely attended by those with open files with CFS as one route to resolving them, but Chabbert said the organization would be open to expanding the program to the broader community.
“If somebody from the community thought they would like to join the group, if there was enough room, we would absolutely let them in, and it would be free of charge,” she said.
“I was just [saying] to our coordinator for these programs [that it would be] great if we could expand it to the wider community, and you don’t have to be involved with CFS. If we had more funding, we absolutely would do that.”
She added that teaching about the forms that domestic violence can take and educating the public on what it means to be in a healthy relationship goes a long way toward prevention.
Other important programs that help families
CFSCM also offers other preventive programming to the community on a range of topics, including co-parenting (which provides strategies for families with separated parents or guardians), active teen parenting, and a women’s retreat for mothers with open files with CFSCM.
Sveistrup says the agency is also proud of its support networking program, which marks another difference in how CFSCM operates now compared to how it has in the past.
We don’t get a lot of donations because people see us as a government-run organization. We are a private agency, but we are government-funded, but … there’s never enough money to do everything we want to do.
-Chris Chabbert, executive director of CFSCM, on the hurdles to offering community programming.
“We’re working with families and their natural supports, whether that is friends or relatives or whoever they bring to the table with the common goal of creating safety for kids,” she said.
“We can use a support network if, say, we’re working with a family, and there are issues, and we’re worried about the potential of the kids having to come into care. We don’t want that. Of course, we want to do everything we can to keep children with their parents, so we bring their support network together to help create safety.”
In the future, CFSCM is also interested in creating an independent living program that teaches basic life skills to young community members who age out of the system.
‘We don’t get a lot of donations’
CFSCM is always looking for ways to refine its programming and offer more to the community, but funding constraints often act as a hurdle.
The women’s retreat, for instance — which has proven to be a restorative program for many of its participants — is currently on hiatus after many years of running due to budget constraints.
Chabbert said that while CFSCM accepts donations and community-run fundraisers on its behalf, it receives limited support in that way due to misconceptions about its structure.
“We don’t get a lot of donations because people see us as a government-run organization. We are a [government-funded] private agency, but … there’s never enough money to do everything we want to do,” she explained.
She added that for any individual or organization that wishes to support CFSCM, the funds raised will stay local and support the communities that raise them.
To learn more about CFSCM or to donate to its preventive programming that strengthens families in the region, visit the Child & Family Services of Central Manitoba website.
To learn about the CFSCM Foundation, which is separate from the agency and provides various types of support to connect children to their communities, click here.