About

About

Spotlight: Child Welfare (SCW) is a collaborative journalism project that brings together journalists and people with lived experience of the so-called child “welfare” system. Our goal is to foster more responsive, in-depth and trauma-informed reporting on this system. 

Hosted by The Tyee, this multi-year project is supported by funding from Inspirit Foundation, McConnell Foundation, and the Law Foundation of British Columbia. Their support of the project does not imply endorsement of or influence over content produced.

Why SCW

The child “welfare” system disproportionately targets Indigenous, Black and racialized families, and too often a disproportionately white media has failed to serve them. Journalists have perpetuated stereotypes about Indigenous and racialized people, serving to uphold a racist child “welfare” system. 

During a workshop series organized by The Discourse in 2017, a panel of advocates with lived experience of the system talked about their (mostly negative) experiences with journalists. Indigenous social workers at Surrounded by Cedar Child and Family Services shared stories about how media coverage of the system impacts them and the families they work with. They talked about how they’d like to see journalists show up differently.

SCW was piloted by The Discourse in 2018-19, in response to these calls for better coverage. And there continues to be an urgent need for better reporting.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has called on journalists to improve the way we report on issues impacting Indigenous communities. And Canadian Journalists of Colour and the Canadian Association of Black Journalists have called on journalists to “formally consult with racialized communities about news coverage on an ongoing basis.”

But the news industry is in crisis mode. Many newsrooms lack the capacity to do in-depth, cross-jurisdictional investigative work — or collaborative work that engages community members, honouring their lived expertise. Many journalists lack the training, support and relationships needed to ensure coverage is anti-racist, trauma-informed and meaningful to those impacted by this system.

SCW is committed to: 

  • Building an informed community of practicing journalists and supporting them with trainings, connections, story ideas and collaborative investigation opportunities
  • Creating paid opportunities for people who’ve been through “care” to direct this project and work alongside us
  • Supporting people connected to the child “welfare” system to critique media coverage and inform new standard journalistic practices, develop investigation ideas and reporting resources; and participate safely in the reporting process

Team

Anna Mary McKenzie (she/her)
Relationships Lead 

Anna's Bio

Anna is a Storyteller with IndigiNews, focusing on Indigenous child “welfare”. She is a Treaty 5 descendent and a member of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation with Scots Métis roots from Cumberland House, Saskatchewan. Before she started reporting with IndigiNews, Anna was an Outreach Worker, working with urban Indigenous youth in/from “care.” She currently resides on the Snuneymuxw First Nation with her daughter.

Brielle Morgan

Brielle Morgan (she/her)
Project Manager 

Brielle's Bio

Brielle is a white, cisgender woman, a mother and a journalist who’s passionate about sharing power. She’s reported on the so-called “child welfare” system, facilitated workshops, managed a journalism fellowship for youth from “care,” and worked on an IndigiNews investigation into birth alerts that earned the national CJF Jackman Award for Excellence in Journalism. Brielle teaches media law and advanced journalism at BCIT.

Francesca Fionda

Francesca Fionda (she/her)
Data Lead 

Francesca's Bio

Francesca is a reporter, journalism instructor and a board member on multiple collaborative journalism projects. She’s worked with national investigative news teams and locally-driven outlets to produce in-depth stories for video, online and podcasts. She currently reports with The Narwhal, an online, non-profit magazine focused on the natural world. As the first-ever recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s BC Journalism Fellowship, she spent months reporting on climate disasters in British Columbia. Her reporting on natural disasters has looked at racism in emergency management, economic impacts of sea level rise and community-driven solutions. She is also an adjunct professor of journalism and has taught trauma-informed interviewing, media law and data journalism. Francesca is a first-generation settler of Filipino and Italian ancestry. She currently lives, reports and teaches on the the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and Stó:lō Nations.

Jaden Dakota Sinclair

Jaden Dakota Sinclair (he/him)
Local Lead Winnipeg 

Jaden's Bio

Jaden Dakota Sinclair is a former youth-in-care with more than a decade of lived experience in the ‘child welfare’ system. He is from Pukatawagan / Mathias Colomb Cree Nation and currently resides in Winnipeg. Jaden has dedicated his time towards serving marginalized and vulnerable populations as an advocate for inclusion, equity and accessibility, through work as a Family Advocate, Support Worker and Community Safety Host. He often shares his lived experience and perspective with organizations that share a similar vision towards nurturing the future leaders of the land and our great-grandchildren.

Ryan Wilson

Ryan Wilson (he/him)
Local Lead Vancouver 

Ryan's Bio

Ryan Wilson is a former youth in care from Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh territories (Vancouver, BC). He is Métis with family from the Red River settlement. After living through “care” and homelessness as a result of gaps in the system, Ryan decided to become a youth worker. He wants to help youth — particularly Indigenous youth — with mental health and substance use struggles. Ryan also shares his lived experience of recovery in community settings.

Tracy Sherlock

Tracy Sherlock (she/her)
Editorial Lead 

Tracy's Bio

Tracy is a freelance journalist and journalism instructor and settler of European descent. She has written for the New York Times, the Vancouver Sun and other publications. She’s received the Jack Webster Award, B.C.’s top journalism prize for a series of stories she wrote about what happens to young people who turn 19 and age out of the “child welfare” system. She also received a citation of merit for the Michener Award, a national journalism award for public service journalism.

Advisory

Cheyanne Ratnam (she/her) (BSW/MSW)

Cheyanne's Bio

Cheyanne is a social entrepreneur passionate about equity, developing inclusive and accessible anti-racist spaces and processes, and social innovation. Cheyanne has lived expertise in child welfare, youth criminal justice, homelessness, immigration, and other sectors. She is Ontario Children’s Advancement Coalition’s CEO, member of Children’s Aid Foundation of Canada’s Equity & Inclusion Council, Scarborough West Community Legal Clinic board director, and serves on the Association of Community Legal Clinics of Ontario’s Race-Equity Working Group. Cheyanne is an Equitable Standards to Youth Transitions Evaluation Model Research Assistant, National Council of Youth in Care Advocates’ provincial representative, and Canadian Consortium on Child & Youth Trauma’s advisory member. 2016 she received 1 of 4 highest accolades awarded by her alma mater. 2017, United Way of Greater Toronto recognized Cheyanne as 1 of 3 Women who inspire for International Women’s Day.

Cheyenne Stonechild (Cree/Nêhiyaw and Irish)

Cheyenne's Bio

Cheyenne is a proud member of the Muscowpetung First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada. She grew up in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and spent a lot of time in the child welfare system. These experiences with the child welfare system have made a lasting impression, which sparked a deep-rooted passion to help create change in the community. Nowadays, she is involved with several groups, such as the FREDA Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children, where she lends her voice to underrepresented issues. Cheyenne has hosted workshops on genealogy and presented at conferences on select topics, including at the Continuing Legal Education Society of BC, The Canadian Bar Association, The Trial Lawyers Association of BC, and the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education in Australia. She has managed the “4 the Generation Project” and was a member of the International Institute for Child Rights and Development from 2018 to 2020. Cheyenne has contributed to her community in various ways and is committed to continuing to do so.

Dylan Cohen (He/him)

Dylan Cohen (he/him)

Dylan's Bio

Dylan is a former youth in care of Ashkenazi and Red River Metis descent, an organizer and urban planner. His work includes leading provincial child welfare campaigns on aging out in BC and MB. He’s worked with journalists on dozens of stories and with Spotlight since its inception. In 2023, he completed a Master in City Planning at MIT and lives in New York City on stolen Lenape territory.

Irwin Elman

Irwin's Bio

Irwin served as Ontario’s Child Advocate from 2008- 2019 drawing on the strength of young people, working to fill the gap between what government, service providers and policy-makers intend, and the reality experienced by some of the most vulnerable children and youth in Ontario. Irwin is currently a “Fellow” with the Laidlaw Foundation of Ontario, the “Global Strategic Advisor” to Until The Last Child, and an “Advisor” to the Coroner of Ontario. Irwin is a proud but admittedly often tired Father to two early teen boys who command his love and doting attention.

Karyn Pugliese, Aka Pabàmàdiz

Karyn's Bio

Karyn is an award-winning journalist, Neiman Fellow, and currently the editor-in-chief of Canadaland. She is also a visiting professor at Toronto Metropolitan University  and occasionally a guest panelist on CBC’s Rosie Barton show. Formerly Karyn worked as the Managing Editor of CBC’s Investigative Unit, overseeing the team at The Fifth Estate and Marketplace. Karyn is best known for her work as a Parliament Hill reporter and as the Executive Director of News and Current Affairs at APTN where she ran the news department for seven years.  She is a citizen of the Pikwàkanagàn First Nation in Ontario and is of mixed Algonquin and Italian descent. When she is not engaged in acts of journalism, you’ll find her paddling a canoe, shooting photos and eating frybread.

Dr. Melanie Doucet

Dr. Melanie Doucet (she/her)

Melanie's Bio

Melanie has been working to improve the lives of youth in care for over 20 years. She is a former youth in care, holds a PhD in Social Work, is an Adjunct Professor at the McGill University School of Social Work and a Project Lead at the Child Welfare League of Canada (CWLC). Her doctoral research, titled Relationships Matter for Youth ‘Aging Out’ of Care, provided a platform for youth from care to develop child welfare research, policy and practice recommendations based on their lived experience expertise. She continues to work as part of the youth in care advocacy community on child protection policy reform initiatives, and is currently leading the Equitable Transitions to Adulthood and a Just Pandemic Recovery for Youth in Care project alongside the National Council of Youth in Care Advocates.

History

In our pilot year (2018-19), we:

  • Brought together freelance and staff journalists from APTN, Black Press, The Discourse, National Observer, The Runner, Star Vancouver, The Tyee and Vancouver Courier
  • Worked with youth from “care” to develop reporting resources
  • Produced 13 original stories, republished by media partners across B.C.
  • Organized five workshops where 18 journalists and dozens of people connected to the system (e.g. youth, parents, social workers, academics, etc.) scoped the project, analyzed data, developed story ideas and designed our name/logo
  • Created paid opportunities for youth to participate meaningfully and consistently
  • Engaged journalism students as project evaluators and reporters

Goals

We hope our work contributes to systemic changes in both the media and “child welfare” systems. Here are some ideal outcomes:

  • Newsrooms across the country are employing trauma-informed, anti-racist and decolonizing practices to cover the “child welfare” system with care, nuance, depth.
  • Indigenous, racialized and 2SLGBTQ+ folks are meaningfully represented in our team, advisory, network of journalists and community workshops.
  • Youth, parents and others with lived experience of the system: have a better understanding of journalistic process and feel comfortable negotiating terms and articulating expectations with journalists; are empowered to criticize dominant narratives and journalistic practices — and to help change harmful norms; develop journalistic skills; and feel seen in and empowered by stories produced as a result of SCW’s work.
  • Stories produced as a result of SCW’s work: centre perspectives of Indigenous, racialized and LGBTQ2S+ folks with lived expertise; include critical context about root causes of the overrepresentation of Indigenous and racialized families; and amplify solutions / ways forward.
  • Journalism produced helps change racist, white supremacist narratives about Indigenous and racialized youth and families and supports those working to decolonize the system.
  • SCW serves as a model for collaborations between journalists and community members.

Support

Spotlight: Child Welfare is supported by grants from Inspirit Foundation, McConnell Foundation, and the Law Foundation of British Columbia. Their support of the project does not imply endorsement of or influence over the content produced.

Branding

Métis artist Samantha Leigh Smith created our logo based on ideas generated by youth artists. She also built the Spotlight: Child Welfare website. See more of Samantha’s work here.

Samantha Leigh Smith
Samantha Smith