Talo Nadleh-un Resources (Children and Youth with Support Needs )

Talo Nadleh-un Resources

Currently, we are seeking input from the community members regarding the creation of our service model. In addition to face-to-face engagements, we are distributing a community engagement questionnaire to help better understand what the needs and barriers are for our local children, youth, and families.

Talo Nadleh-un will also be forming a working group to assist on identifying gaps and barrier and to guide our framework in a way that will best meet the needs of the children, youth and families we serve.

In October 2021, the Ministry of Children and Family Development announced a plan to establish a new service system, based on its Children and Youth with Support Needs Framework, through the implementation of new one-stop “family connection centers.” Following this announcement, Indigenous leaders and community representatives expressed considerable concern.
In July 2023, Nak’azdli Whut’en signed an agreement with the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) to co-develop an Indigenous-led, integrated model to provide referral, assessment, and support services to families of children with support needs in a way that will be more effective in meeting the needs of children in our area.
Our services will be open to any children and youth 19 and under that are living in and around Nak’azdli Whut’en/Fort St James and surrounding communities regardless of income, ethnicity, location, or diagnoses.
Although our services will be rooted in Dakelh culture and beliefs, our services will also be available to non-indigenous children and youth, both on and off reserve – no child left behind.
Referrals to services can be made directly by families or other agencies such as schools, daycares, government agencies, health professionals, etc.
Providing parents, youth, and children with inclusive, culturally safe, family-centered supports to enable them to reach their full potential.”
It is the goal of Talo Nadleh-un to remove barriers to services for all children and youth in our area.
Above all else, the Talo Nadleh-un Resources is family-led and family centered. Our principles are based on respect for all, respect for community, and respect for all our partners and stakeholders.
We believe that it is the parents/caregivers that are the ultimate experts when it comes to their children and youth, therefore it is the goal of Talo Nadleh-un to provide support to the families in a way that works best for the child/youth and their families.

Support Services

Using a “Two-Eyed Seeing” approach, all services will be guided by what the families and community identify as services needed for children and youth with support needs. By combining both Dakelh and Western knowledge and science, we hope to provide support to our children and youth with support needs in a more wholistic way.

"Two-Eyed Seeing refers to learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous ways of knowing and from the other eye with the strengths of Western ways of knowing and to using both of these eyes together” (Bartlett, Marshall, & Marshall, 2012, p. 335).

Learn more about CYSN project