"Six Nations Child And Family Services hosts open house"

OHSWEKEN - The Child and Family Services branch of Six Nations Social Services hosted an open house at its offices last Wednesday. Staff organized an Open House from l-4pm which included displays, tours and refreshments.

Community members were invited to the open house to learn about the staff at Child and Family Services and the services they provide.

"It's just to get the community to put a name to the face," said Faith Bouchard. Staff had their picture or name tag on the door of their office. The days events also included a tour and discussion panel and a 'meet and greet' with all the staff and counsellors. "It's good to know what services we offer," said Bouchard. Child and Family Services exhibited each unit of their department, "In each of our units...we are all putting together a game to do with coping with anger, self-esteem...activities related to problem-solving," said Bouchard.

Child and Family Services hosted the open house to distinguish themselves from the other agencies housed in the Six Nations Social Services building. "We're trying to make that distinction between Children's Aid Society and Child and Family Services," said Lisa Farmer during the tour of the facility. There are many organizations under the umbrella of Social Services and the open house was designed to showcase one in particular.

"We participate in Community Awareness Week, National Family Day, Health Fair and Career Day," said Bouchard. The Child and Family Services staff are keen on informing the community about their services. They also listen to the community according to their mission statement 'to provide assistance as the community deems appropriate.' "If the community are asking for something we try to fill the need," said Farmer.

Child and Family Services comprises these units: Service Coordination, Band Representative, Clinical Services, Family Support and Community Support/Resource Development. The tour included an introduction to each unit and a visit with the coordinators. Beverly Maracle is a service coordinator and band representative, "We do individual counselling, couple and family counselling." There are three staff in the unit with dual roles as service coordinator and band representative. They provide counselling and gather information to determine which unit can best service their client's needs. As well as the questionnaires Maracle conducts there is also a page with seventy different faces representing as many emotions. "People don't realize the range of feelings, it's to help with self-awareness," explained Maracle.

The Clinical Services unit provided the Temper Taming Game for visitors to play. "It's adapted from the ones that originally did the programming," said Bouchard. The game developed from Brenda Mills and Peter Evans was a decision tree about anger management and when the participant made a good choice they received a treat (for me it was a bag of Doritos) and an 'in-charge card.' Clinical Services also provided stress balls for all visitors made from cornmeal. "One of the things we do in our unit is relieve stress," said Crystal Doolittle.

Family support provided 'feelings puppets' fashioned after the cornhusk doll. The felt dolls are to be assembled, glued together and mounted on a stick. The stick puppets come complete with hair, ribbons for the dress and a blank face. Like the cornhusk doll, "It's up to you to put a face on it," said Penny Martin. Family support works with the young, students and families. "Younger clients are not aware of feelings so using puppets helps describe their feelings," explained Martin. She uses different kind of puppets to facilitate communication between herself and her younger clients. Family support also offers parenting, homemaking and educational programs for families.

Community Support offers a resource library and community activities and workshops. As with the other programs, "This is a service that is available to the community," said Farmer. All the services are free to members of Six Nations community. Resource development arranges programs for children, youth and adults such as Girl's Circle, Sister's Circle and Men's Singing Groups. "They are looking for volunteers, volunteer drivers and resource development support persons," explained Farmer.

The open house began with tours every hour followed by discussion groups and concluded in the evening with a potluck dinner and family fun games. The games and community activities are intended "to promote more community cohesiveness," said Farmer. Child and Family Services showcased their staff and programs in a day and night event that provided fresh fruit and vegetables and games in abundance. It is unknown how many people attended the event but those who did learned about Child and Family Services and the distinction between this service and the other agencies in the building.