New Foundation to be Created for 60s Scoop Survivors by Survivors says Interim Board

TORONTO, Dec. 1, 2018 /CNW/ - Today the Honourable Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, announced the finalization of the National Sixties Scoop Settlement, which includes $50 million to fund a Foundation for Sixties Scoop survivors. An Interim Board, composed of survivors and renowned experts in Indigenous child welfare, has come together to ensure this funding creates a Foundation for survivors by survivors. 

"The Foundation created through this funding will be fully independent. It will be for all survivors impacted by the Sixties Scoop—Inuit, First Nations, Métis, non-status—everyone," said Marcia Brown Martel, a lead plaintiff in the Sixties Scoop settlement and co-chair of the Interim Board.  

The volunteer Interim Board, which was created to lay the groundwork for the creation of a Foundation, also includes Sixties Scoop survivors and lead plaintiffs: Maggie Blue Waters (co-chair) and Sharon Russell, as well as Indigenous child welfare experts and advocates: Dr. Cindy Blackstock, Dr. Jeannine Carriere, and Jeffery Wilson.  

"Now that the settlement is approved, it will be Sixties Scoop survivors who shape the vision and path for this new Foundation," said Martel. 

To ensure this happens, the Interim Board has secured Kenn Richard and Dr. Raven Sinclair to lead consultation sessions with survivors across the country.  Both experts share a life-long commitment to Sixties Scoop survivors and Indigenous communities.  Mr. Richard is the original founder of Native Child and Family Services of Toronto. As Executive Director he helped craft a truly alternative response to Child Welfare. Dr. Sinclair is a Professor of Social Work at the University of Regina and Sixties Scoop survivor, researcher, author, and filmmaker.

"We are at the very beginning of a very important process—to understand how this Foundation can best meet the needs of survivors," said Richard.  "That means asking: what should this foundation do? How should it be governed? What principles will guide it? We will listen to as many voices as possible to get this right.  We want to hear the voices of those who went through it. It's their Foundation and they must be involved from the very beginning." 

In the coming days, the Interim Board will launch a website, which will be updated with information regarding the consultation process as it becomes available.  It is anticipated that the consultation process will begin by spring 2019 and conclude before the end of the year.

SOURCE Interim Board for the Foundation for Sixties Scoop Survivors

Media Contact: Jessie Sitnick, [email protected], 416-859-8250