Thank you to all who attended the meeting via Zoom on Saturday October 25th, 2025. We still looking for two board members to fill out our Board of Directors for the coming year.
As presented by Shari Monsma, President F4CRR
President’s Update on Activities for 2024-2025 Fiscal Year
Board of Director’s Activities
From September 1st 2024, through August 31st, 2025, our Board has worked diligently throughout the year on writing grant proposals and reports, creating townhalls, webinars and informational session on important issues, organizing and delivering our annual face to face Gathering. As well as continuing to build and strengthen our relationship with MCFD, and our outreach to like family and children’s organizations to build connections and collaborate on sharing of free learning opportunities, information and other kinship caregiver supports. Most importantly, we continue our engagement with you, our members, in supplying news updates and recruiting your support for our advocacy campaigns.
I would now like to review another very important piece of the work we do at Fairness and that is Research.
Over the past 2 ½ years Fairness has been in an amazing relationship with Dr. Barbara Lee and together we have entered into three research projects. The first project was one where Fairness, MCFD, and UBC partnered to sponsor and support Social Worker Mastery students through their research project on Kinship Caregivers. Entitled, “Examining Support Needs for Children, Youth and Caregivers in Kinship/Out-of-Care
Arrangements”.
This partnership with Dr. Barbara Lee has led to a UBC podcast, a Canada-wide Practice and Research Talk, Fairness participating in a panel discussion with Interwoven Connections in Ontario. The CUES funding allowed us the opportunity to video tape 8 separate kinship caregivers personal stories and then create two F2F screenings this year in February at UBC Burnaby and May at UBC Kelowna. Now we are pleased to announce that these stories are on our website for everyone to view.
Our second project is the study, entitled Reimagining Family Support Services: Perspectives from Kinship Caregivers, explores supporting families raising children within kinship care from the lived experience of the kinship caregivers. This free webinar will provide valuable insights and fuel discussion among caregivers, practitioners, and policymakers. We invite all of you to participate.
Our third project will start in March 2026-April 2027 and it will be entitled, “ “What we wish we knew”: Reimagining Training for Kinship Families and Social Workers” This training we be informed by research, and be developed in partnership with Fairness and Study of Services to Children and Families (CSSCF), with consultation and support from UBC’s Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, UBC School of Social Work Continuing Professional Development, and the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) Learning and Development branch. By bringing together caregivers’ lived expertise with university resources and government training infrastructure, this project will strengthen caregiver capacity, enhance social workers’ preparedness, and improve outcomes for children and youth raised by relatives across British Columbia.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our Board members for all of their hard work throughout the year.
Also, on behalf of myself and the board we want to give a special thanks and acknowledgement to Elaine Bonderoff not only for all of her hard work over the past couple of years in her role as Secretary but also for all her time in creating and providing beautiful Fairness thank you cards. We will miss you on the Board but are so happy that you will remain as a member and continue to support Fairness.
We also want to thank and recognize Mary Scheidegger our Webmaster, for all her hard work in maintaining, updating and upgrading our website.
As well we want to give a special shoutout to Bonnie Whipple who worked with UBC under the CUES grant to help produce our Strategic Plan. Then she donated her earnings from this venture back to Fairness, which was used to assist us in filming more videos at our recent gathering. Thank you so much for your generosity.
We also want to thank Sharon Whiting for all of her hard work in putting together the e-petition 6646 to request the Government of Canada to amend the CPP program to enable a contributor with child dependents to receive a monthly payment for the child(ren) of which the contributor is legally responsible for.
As presented by Mandy Dodgshon, Director of Advocacy F4CRR
From the beginning Fairness has made it a priority to nurture a relationship with the Minister and Executive Directors within the Ministry of Children and Family Development. This relationship has led to joint research report with Fairness, MCFD and UBC. Growing this connection grants us access to connect monthly. We at Fairness listen to what our kinship caregivers need and their concerns and bring their voices forward. These meetings also allow us the opportunity to meet with key contacts from various departments, meeting with their executive directors and making them aware of Fairness and garnering from them the answers to our many questions. Ministry Jody Wickens has invited Fairness to be part of a 3 year review of Kinship Care.
In January our annual MP/MLA letters were sent to all our members to be forwarded to their local MLA/MP. In my position as Director of Advocacy, I send my own letter of introduction ahead of these member letters. As a result of these letters, we are invited by various MLAs or MPs to do a presentation letting them know who we are, what the issues are and why we are seeking their support. One of our main issues being the claw back of the Child Tax credit by MCFD for kinship caregivers in the permanent out-of-care 54.01/54.1 program. CTV broadcasted a segment on this issue and interviewing the Ombudsman, Minster Jodie Wickens, Fairness and PSSS.
Annually Fairness provides a submission to the Ministry of Finance Standing Committee on our current advocacy issues. This year our first recommendation was that MCFD needs to stop claiming benefits under the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) and Disability Child Benefit (DCB) for the over 2800 currently eligible children in the 54 Permanent Guardianship program. This claim means that these families are ineligible for various other federal and provincial benefits. Our second recommendation was to Increase the investment in the continuum of services for children and youth with support needs so those kinship care youths who come into care prior to the age of 12 years through an out of care MCFD program can all access the SAJE supports.
August 2025 would bring the results from Ministry of Finance Standing Committee Report for the BC 2026 Budget and we are happy to share Fairness’ issues were included in the final report, and recommendations so once again we are being heard.
Please note more information on our advocacy and other events please go to our website at Fairness4crr.com.
