Wood’s Homes celebrated its 100 th anniversary in Since its early days as an orphanage during World War II in Innisfail, Olds and later Bowness Campus in Calgary we have mostly worked with adolescents. Since opening OBSD 40% of the children we work with now are under the age of 6. We have programs in Calgary, Strathmore, Canmore, Lethbridge, Fort McMurray and Fort Smith, NWT.

 Our OBSD Family Connections program opened in October  Since program inception we have received 457 referrals and work with an average of clients at one time.  We take referrals from all units in Lethbridge including the intake and assessment unit and have worked with 1 Taber file during this time.

 When we first started OBSD we worked strictly with clients from Unit Z.  There was a lot of time spent over the next 2-3 years having joint team meetings with both Wood’s Homes Family Connections and Unit Z. These meetings took place for 3 ½ hours every 2 nd week. We spent a lot of time working on roles and responsibilities, collaboration, Signs of Safety and building our collective teams.  This large time commitment laid the foundation for the work that we do today, the collaboration between agency and CFS. We have tried to carry that learning and experience into the new units as we expand.

 Once Children’s Services makes a referral for services we meet together and do a formal referral.  Caseworker, Wood’s worker and family members meet to complete an intake meeting. During this meeting the 4 Column Form/Safety Map is discussed and developed. The harm and danger statements and current safety are discussed. From there safety goals are written and a plan put in place to meet these goals.  At this time a safety plan is also made to ensure the children will remain safe in the home.  4 column forms and safety plans are developed with family voice evident and written at the parent’s level of understanding.

 Building safety in biological families is our first priority and the work we do is drawing out of families what safety already exists within in themselves. We build off of their existing safety to ensure the children will remain safe and that involved creating in depth safety plans that covers every contingency we can think of as well as calling on the natural supports in the families lives to play a role.

 With OBSD came a change in the working relationship between our agency and Children's Services workers. In the past the relationship was that of a hierarchy with the work being delegated.  With OBSD the work is done collaboratively with workers from both sides working together with the family to create a single case plan and work towards achieving safety for the children.  OBSD is relationship based work where families, caseworkers and agency workers work together to achieve a common goal.

 Collaboration in OBSD continues to mean Children’s Services is the delegated authority, not the agency worker.  How safety is achieved is made in joint work between the caseworker, the agency and the family together. There is a lot of information sharing, joint mappings, case conferences and joint decision making.

 Since October 2010 we have worked with 90 different children in Foster Care and 39 children in Kinship Care.  This breaks down into 20% of children we’ve worked with being in Foster Care and 8% being in Kinship care since October  Currently we have 15 children in Foster Care and 9 children in Kinship Care.

 We would like to reduce the amount of people coming and going out of the foster children’s lives and reduce the amount of upheaval they go through.  When possible we have foster parents drive children to school, activities and visits with the bio-parent.  Family Support Counselors work with the foster family and the biological family to support the use of the same routine, rules and structure in the home.  By bringing consistency to the child between both homes and having parents interact during pick ups and drop offs children see that both sets of parents in their lives can have a relationship and they don’t feel conflicted. Bio and foster parents are more connected about what’s going on in the child’s life and more likely to work through problems together.

 Our goal is to involve foster parents earlier on in working with families and to work more closely as a collaborative group.  We can provide foster parents with in home support in the work they are doing with children and help to provide that connection between foster families and bio families and facilitate natural connections.

 During the previous 6 month reporting period – April –September 2014 on closed files:  Referrals for preservation services (remaining at home)  Results show that 81.25% of children remained in their family homes and 12.5% came into care. 1 child transitioned to independence.  Referrals for reunification services (children returning home)  A total of 14 child files were referred for reunification services. Results show that 28.6% of the children returned home to their families. 50% did not return home with their families and 14.3% transitioned to independence.

 Though we see it as ever changing and evolving, our relationship with Children’s Services has strengthened through the collaborative OBSD process and we work together to provide safety for the children in the families we work with.  We are seeing the difference the work is making in keeping children in their biological families longer in situations when in the past they likely would have been removed.