Partnering for the sake of the children

After more than a decade and a half of lingering distrust and occasional friction, the relationship between Montreal’s English-speaking Black community and the agency that is now called Batshaw Youth and Family Centres is entering a new phase of cooperation as community leaders respond to the extended hand of the agency’s executive director Margaret Douek in the task of salvaging at-risk Black youth.
Just eight months in the job, Douek, a career human service worker, is reaching out to organizations and professionals in the community to assist the agency to better serve and ultimately reduce the disproportionately high number of Black families that are coming through its doors…
“Because of the complexity of the problems facing many of these families, we have to strive to collaborate with those organizations that can help us in specific areas,” she told Community CONTACT in a recent interview.
“Batshaw does not have particular expertise in dealing with some of the problems new immigrants face, or in (the fallout of) drug addiction or domestic violence, so if we can find partners who can assist us to better serve families who are dealing with these issues, it will be to all our benefit.”
Douek’s outreach efforts are being well-received in certain quarters by leaders of community organizations who are mindful of how important it is to collaborate with Batshaw to attack the myriad issues that drive Black families into the path of the social service agency.
Akute Azu, executive director of the Black Community Resource Centre (BCRC), is upbeat about prospects of community involvement in some of the decision-making process at Batshaw concerning Black families.
“We are working to revive the Black Advisory Committee at Batshaw, which we know can be an important mechanism in helping the agency deliver services that are more culturally sensitive to our community.”
And he says the BCRC stands ready to work with and support Douek’s outreach initiatives because he is convinced that “she brings a level of understanding and compassion” not shown by others in her position before.
Noel Alexander, head of the Jamaica Association of Montreal, is a member of the Board of Directors at Batshaw. He too feels good about Douek’s stated commitment to collaborate in finding solutions to the lingering problems that keep so many Black families mired in the social justice system.
“She is on the right track trying to get more Black organizations involved, but the problem is much bigger that we think. So she can’t do it alone,” he says. “A big part of the solution must come from our community.”
All this talk of collaboration and support is a marked change in what for the most part was a frigid relationship between the English-speaking Black community and Batshaw.
It was back in 1992 when a wedge was driven between the agency and our community following the release of results from a one-day study, Profile Of Clients In The Anglophone Youth Network: Examining The Situation Of The Black Child, that showed Black youth represent close to a quarter of the population in the social services and juvenile justice system.
The massive over-representation was cause for alarm among community workers and human service professionals who were concerned that the agency might be unfair, or at best culturally insensitive, in its application of the Quebec Youth Protection Act and Youth Criminal Justice Act, and was disproportionately placing Black children in foster homes and youth detention centres.
Bryan Bishop, a former director of youth protection with the Cree Health Services in the James Bay Region of Northern Quebec, is familiar with the report which came out of a collaboration between workers at the various service centres that now make Batshaw,
McGill University School of Social Work, and the Association of Black Human Service Workers.
He says one of the most troubling findings of the one-day study was that an extremely high percentage of the cases involving Blacks were court-ordered.
“That can be seen as evidence that the agency had more of a bullying attitude towards Black families as opposed to conciliation and mediation.”
Based on that shaky history, he too finds the new executive director’s collaborative efforts encouraging.
Douek, who worked her way up the ranks of the system, serving in various managerial positions at the then Ville Marie Social Services and at Shawbridge Youth Centre, before becoming assistant executive director and now executive director is also aware of the history of that relationship.
But she says some of it has been colored by faulty perceptions of the agency.
“The truth is, most of the attention we get is from the media and the public when something bad happens, and that sometimes put us in a negative light.”
“However, our mandate remains the same and all our decisions is to do what’s best for the child, and that can sometimes be difficult in some families because the needs of the parents are in conflict with the needs of the child.”
Douek says negligence is still the primary reason why children are placed and it is as common in the Black community as it is in all other groups served by Batshaw. But the problem she says, in dealing with this issue hinges on how complex it is.
Many factors contribute to neglect, including substance abuse, alcoholism, domestic violence and mental health issues.
According to a recent survey of cases that are on the agency’s books, 30% of the 927 children are from the Black community.  However, Douek says there is hope in the numbers because they also show that cases of neglect in our community tend to be more situational than chronic.
And so, the challenge to work at bringing down those numbers are as urgent as ever. 
For her part, Douek signals her intention to use all the mechanisms at her disposal to do so, not the least of which is partnering and collaborating with forces in our community with a vested interest in salvaging youth.  
by Egbert Gaye