CAS of Toronto helps employees help others

Like many other organizations, the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto (CAS of Toronto) was challenged during the pandemic to offer employees as much hands-on training and career development as the agency would have liked. These days, the agency is making up for lost time.

Over the past year alone, CAS of Toronto has introduced new peer learning groups, orientation training for supervisors and an internship program aimed at sharpening the skill sets of senior child protection workers.

At the same time, the organization continues to advance new mentoring opportunities, including an Indigenous and racialized mentorship program that aims to increase the diversity of CAS of Toronto supervisors and managers.

In all, the agency has introduced 45 new courses, bringing the total of training and development programs to nearly 200. Almost half of the new offerings include a strong focus on issues of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

“If employees feel they are being nurtured and supported, it increases their engagement and satisfaction,” says Colin Hill, interim chief human resources officer for CAS of Toronto. “It also enables them to be successful in their current role, achieve their goals and pursue their career aspirations.”

Because of the frequently stressful nature of that work, employee learning and development programs are also increasingly focused on issues of mental health and well-being.

“You may experience many tough situations in this line of work and often, out of care and concern, you can’t help but take it home with you,” says Hill. “So we take every opportunity to encourage our people to come forward and utilize our support, resources and confidential services.”

In light of the challenges and rewarding experiences, CAS of Toronto has an enviable retention rate: the average tenure for employees is over 14 years.

One of those long-term employees is Satnam Dhillon, who has been with the agency for some 20 years, much of it as a front-line child protection worker.

Dhillon, who was recently promoted to intake supervisor, cites the support of peers and supervisors as a key reason for her longevity.

Prior to taking her latest job, Dhillon participated in the agency’s new internship program, a six-month initiative that brings together a small group of senior child protection workers to strengthen their practice and leadership skills.

One key focus for the internship program is to better apply the ‘Signs of Safety’ assessment framework, a client-centred and child-focused approach the agency uses in delivering child protection service.

The internship program also stresses the importance of incorporating EDI, including an anti-Black racism lens, into child protection work.

Moving away from some older and more paternalistic models of child protection, CAS of Toronto’s primary goal is to keep children and youth with their families and in their communities whenever possible. Placing children and youth in foster homes is considered a last resort; the clear preference is to work with parents to provide a place of safety within their families and extended networks.

For both Dhillon and Hill, this approach is what makes their work so meaningful.

“For those of us in the field, the ability to make a positive difference is what keeps us going,” says Dhillon. “We know that every interaction we have with a child or family member can help strengthen existing safety and validate their experiences.”

Hill, a 36-year veteran of the human resources field, joined CAS of Toronto in 2022. He, too, welcomes the chance to make a difference.

“I love being able to help people who help people,” he says. “I feel very blessed to have found this opportunity later in my career.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Greater Toronto’s Top Employers winners, published December 5, 2023 in The Globe and Mail. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.

CAST embeds equity in its culture and its services

As a front-line worker with the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto (CAST) for the better part of 10 years, Tanika Newman learned the importance of working closely with community agencies to better serve families.

“Simply put, it takes a village to help keep children and families safe,” says Newman. “If we know there’s a program or service in the community that can help families overcome something they are struggling with, then that’s a win for everyone. In some cases, it may mean we can prevent opening up a child protection file. And where intervention is necessary, it helps us identify and address the diverse needs of the families we serve.”

Newman is now applying these lessons in her role as manager of strategic community partnerships within the equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) department, an increasingly ambitious and deliberative focus for the agency.

Her job is to evaluate longstanding partnerships, while constantly seeking out new opportunities to build bridges with individuals and groups that can help CAST support families in need.

These community partnerships are wide-ranging and include mental health, parenting and family counselling agencies.

Newman’s work is very much in keeping with CAST’s primary goal of keeping children and youth with their families and in their communities, whenever possible. If, in some cases, children must be brought to a place of safety, the goal is to work with their parents on building their capacity to care for them.

An understanding of the history and some of the current realities of child protection also informs the need for community outreach.

“We need to acknowledge that, as a sector, child welfare has created a lot of trauma, particularly in Black and Indigenous communities,” says Newman. “Children and youth from these communities continue to be over-represented in our system, and so we have to ensure we are working with community partners to help change that.”

The department works on two inter-related fronts: helping build an internal EDI work culture and embedding the principles of EDI across the services provided to client families.

The department’s director, Ana Ibarra, cites the recent establishment of several equity-seeking employee resource groups as a good example of building an internal culture. To date, there are four such groups, representing Black, East Asian, Muslim and 2SLGBTQ+ staff members.

“These groups help provide connections and representation that didn’t formally exist before,” says Ibarra. “They bring staff together from across the agency on a regular basis and provide a space for them to share part of their lived identities.”

In terms of embedding EDI into front-line services, Ibarra says much of it revolves around employee training and capacitybuilding. For example, the department has equity leads whom service team members can consult when relevant issues arise with client families.

The work of the EDI department, she adds, is very much about looking at child protection through a different lens.

“In a city like Toronto, you have so much diversity,” says Ibarra. “And it’s not just about different racial identities. We also need to look at things from multiple, intersecting perspectives. You can’t look at things from just one perspective; a ‘one size fits all’ approach isn’t going to work.”

Ibarra says what she enjoys most about her work is the opportunity to constantly learn and connect.

“I like being an intermediary between new ideas and implementation. That’s been a real privilege.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Canada’s Best Diversity Employers winners, published March 5, 2024 in The Globe and Mail. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.