For more helpful information, follow these links:

Videos:

Practice Model – a description of how General Authority agencies and service regions practice child welfare

Breaking the Silence – a video about domestic violence informed practice.

Sounds through the Wall – a video for new Canadians about Canadian parenting laws

Soccer video – a video explaining how CFS works for a wide audience using soccer as an analogy

FAMILY SUPPORTS AND RESOURCES

Manitoba has many good resources available for parents and families. For more information, please visit the following:

CHILDREN & YOUTH

There are numerous supports available to young people in Manitoba, whether they are curious about their rights, need help with specific issues such as education or addictions or whether they need help finding financial assistance. The General Authority can help direct children and youth to the right resources.

FOSTER PARENTS

There are many resources in Manitoba for those who are interested in foster care or who are already foster parents.

See the Foster Family Manual for more information.

Additionally, the General Authority often provides training opportunities for foster parents. See our latest training calendarfor details on how to register.

Other helpful links include:

ADOPTION RESOURCES

Those looking for information on all aspects of adoption in Manitoba have numerous sources.

Adoption Resources

ADOPTION RESOURCES

Those considering adoption in Manitoba have numerous resources available.

Please view the province of Manitoba’s Adoption Act and its Adoption page.

Additionally, contact your local child and family services agency. You will be provided with adoption orientation information to help you with your adoption decision.

Post-Adoption Registry

POST-ADOPTION REGISTRY

Manitoba’s post-adoption registry allows those who have been involved in an adoption that was granted in Manitoba to search for family members.

Searches can be done on behalf of anyone entitled to register, subject to any disclosure or contact vetoes and/or contact preferences on file. Searches for any person under 18 years of age are not permitted.

Searches are conducted by the Department of Families.

For more information, visit the province of Manitoba’s Post-Adoption Registry page.

Open Birth Records

OPEN BIRTH RECORDS

Adoptees and birth parents can apply to find out more about their birth parents or adopted children. Both parties can apply to get access to these records through the Manitoba Post-Adoption Registry.

Adoptees who are 18 or older can also request pre-adoption birth information and birth parents can request a child’s pre-adoption birth registration information.

For more information, please see the government of Manitoba’s Open Birth Records Related to Adoption page.

Wendy's Wonderful Kids

Wendy’s Wonderful Kids is making a difference for thousands of children up for adoption—one child at a time. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption awards grants to public and private adoption agencies to hire adoption professionals who implement proactive, child-focused recruitment programs targeted exclusively on moving North America’s longest-waiting children from foster care into adoptive families. The General Child and Family Services Authority received a grant in 2013 from the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption to bring children one step closer to finding homes. Manitoba is the fifth province to be awarded this grant.

Through its partnership with the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, the General Authority currently has one recruiter working to find “forever families” for children.

Research from a five-year evaluation of Wendy’s Wonderful Kids shows that children referred to the program are up to three times more likely to get adopted.

OUR RECRUITERS

These professionals, known as Wendy’s Wonderful Kids recruiters, work on caseloads of children the system has forgotten, ensuring they have the time and resources to give each child as much attention as he or she deserves. These recruiters employ aggressive practices and proven tactics focused on finding the best home for a child through the starting points of familiar circles of family, friends and neighbors, and then reaching out to the communities in which they live.

Wendy’s Wonderful Kids has recruiters working for children throughout the U.S. and Canada. The program has helped thousands of children get adopted by their forever families.

OUR CHILDREN

The children served by the Wendy’s Wonderful Kids program are typically those who have been waiting the longest for an adoptive family and home. By the time they are referred to a Wendy’s Wonderful Kids recruiter, nearly 70 per cent are older than age eight, 30 per cent have had six or more placements, and 50 per cent have been in foster care more than four years. Some have never had a plan of adoption and have simply been on a track to age out of foster care at age 18 or 21 without the security and love of a permanent family.

For more information, please contact the General Authority agencies and service regions.