Culturally-Rooted Well-Being Assessment across the continuum of child and family service agencies

Keywords Culturally-Rooted Well-Being, Ethical Space, Impact Stories, Winter Count, Principles of Assessment, Child Welfare, Culturally-Rooted Well-Being, Ethical Space, Impact Stories, Principles of Assessment, Data Portal, Well-being Indicators
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Summary

ALIGN Association of Community Services is a community of agencies representing the diverse needs of Alberta's children and families by sharing information, experiences, and research.

PolicyWise for Children & Families partnered with ALIGN to develop a framework and toolkit for the ALIGN Wellness Initiative. The goals of the initiative are to support children and family serving agencies to assess child, youth, and caregiver well-being and share the impacts of their work.

The initiative resulted in the Measureing Well-Being Framework and associated Toolkit featuring resources, videos, an Impact Portal and Dashboard, and a Community of Practice to support culturally responsive and inclusive child and youth well-being practice and assessment.

Policy & Practice Implications

  • Children and family service agencies can apply the Framework’s culturally responsive and inclusive approach to assess children, youth, caregivers, and staff well-being across seven domains.
  • The Toolkit’s 422 well-being indicators collected from youth, Indigenous and diverse practitioners, Elders and Knowledge Keepers, and existing assessments can be used by organizations to guide their program and client evaluations.
  • The Toolkit's videos can support staff understanding of Indigenous cultural perspectives and experiences of newcomer youth.
  • Policy makers can support Indigenous knowledges and practices by embracing the value of Indigenous ways of observing, assessing, and sharing impact.
  • Centering the voices of youth and caregivers with lived experiences in assessment practices can build trusting relationships while collecting and learning from meaningful testimonials of impact.