Piikani Child and Family Services opens new space in downtown Lethbridge
By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on December 2, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com Piikani Child and Family Services has opened a space for youth in care in the heart of downtown Lethbridge and received their Blackfoot name on Wednesday.The office, located in the Paramount building (719 4 Avenue S.), has been open for a year but on Wednesday they had the official ribbon cutting ceremony.
“Our goal is always we want to serve our children, not only on the reserve but off the reserve and they really helped us,” said Kelly Provost, executive director of Piikani Child and Family Services.
Provost added that in children’s services, one of the key things is cultural planning for a child in care, and with that they are able to connect children to their nation. They get a lot of children that are not able to get a lot of cultural engagement, cultural learning and understanding.
“For us now, we are able to connect them to their relatives, to people that are from their community, their direct relatives and I guess that is one of the strong points we are excited about,” said Provost.
He said every child in their care is everyone’s child. Many people in the community have the desire to help create identity for children in care and help them learn their culture.
“We’ve been very fortunate, we’ve been able to create some cultural tools for other agencies,” said Provost.
He said that for children in care their identity is what brings them the most success, learning where they come from provides them with a foundation to become successful.
The new office is the second location of Piikani Child and Family Services. At the moment the Lethbridge office is taking care of 22 files and they are hoping to expand to Calgary within 2022 as there are multiple Piikani youth there as well. Follow @APulidoHerald on Twitter 4
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