The Foster Family Coalition of the NWT: Support for NWT Foster Parents

When a child arrives at your door at 11 p.m. because there was nowhere else for them to go, your regional social services office is unlikely to answer the phone. The Foster Family Coalition of the NWT (FFCNWT) exists, in large part, to fill the gaps that the government system leaves — and in the NWT, those gaps are wide.

With a 24.7% vacancy rate in Child and Family Services positions across the territory, and a child welfare caseload almost entirely composed of Indigenous children navigating an underfunded and overextended system, foster parents in the NWT need support that is independent, practical, and honest. That is what the FFCNWT is supposed to provide.

What the FFCNWT Is

The Foster Family Coalition of the NWT is a non-profit organization based in Yellowknife that represents the interests of foster parents across all 33 NWT communities. It receives government funding but operates independently of the Department of Health and Social Services — a distinction that matters for foster parents who need to raise concerns about their social worker, dispute a placement decision, or advocate for better conditions without going through the very system they have concerns about.

The FFCNWT can be reached at:

• Toll-free: 1-866-233-0136
• Email: [email protected]
• Private Facebook group: Fostering Facebook Group (for current foster parents)

What the FFCNWT Does for Prospective Foster Parents

Intake support. If you are considering fostering and want an honest orientation to the process before committing to an HSS intake appointment, the FFCNWT is an appropriate first call. They can walk you through what the application involves, what the timeline looks like in your region, and what current foster parents say the experience is actually like — unfiltered by institutional communication constraints.

Peer connections. The FFCNWT facilitates connections between prospective applicants and current foster parents in their region. For prospective caregivers in smaller communities, speaking with a foster parent who is doing this work in a similar community — who knows what it is like to be the only foster family in a town of 400, or what it takes to foster in a fly-in community without reliable cell service — is often more practically useful than any government resource.

Application navigation. While the FFCNWT does not process applications (that is HSS's function), they can help you understand what is expected at each stage, flag common delays, and help you follow up when the process stalls.

What the FFCNWT Does for Current Foster Parents

The Caregiver Classroom. The FFCNWT manages the Caregiver Classroom, an online professional development platform available to all NWT foster parents. The platform hosts training modules beyond the baseline P.R.I.D.E. curriculum, including FASD support strategies, suicide prevention (LivingWorks START), naloxone training, cultural safety, and mental health support for youth in isolated environments. This platform exists specifically to allow remote caregivers — in fly-in communities where in-person training is rare — to meet their ongoing professional development requirements.

Advocacy. The FFCNWT formally represents foster parents in dealings with the government. The most significant example of this was their 2020 open letter — a 27-page document that detailed allegations that social workers had withheld documents from foster parents, misrepresented children's histories at placement, and failed to adequately support caregivers in crisis situations. Whether or not every specific allegation in that letter has been resolved, it represents the kind of advocacy capacity that matters enormously when a foster parent feels steamrolled by the system.

Respite coordination. The FFCNWT can help connect foster families who need respite care with licensed respite providers in their region. In small communities where the pool of licensed caregivers is tiny, this coordination function is not trivial.

Conflict navigation. This is the support function most often needed and least often advertised. When a foster parent has a conflict with their social worker — a disagreement about placement decisions, frustration over unreturned calls, concerns about being given incomplete information about a child's history before placement — the FFCNWT can provide guidance on how to escalate the concern through the appropriate channels, up to and including the regional Chief Operating Officer.

The Honest Limitations of FFCNWT Resources

A prospective foster parent doing their research should know one important limitation: the FFCNWT's own published "NWT Foster Family Guide" is dated March 2019. It predates the 2020–2021 legislative shifts that gave Indigenous governing bodies direct jurisdiction over child welfare under Bill C-92, the Inuvialuit Family Way of Living Law, and the amendments to the Child and Family Services Act that enhanced community Plan of Care Committees and the child's voice in proceedings.

For legal accuracy about the current framework — particularly regarding how Indigenous law interacts with territorial law, how the placement priority hierarchy operates under current legislation, and what the Inuvialuit jurisdiction means for caregivers in the Beaufort-Delta region — that 2019 document is not a reliable reference.

The FFCNWT is valuable for peer support, advocacy, and training access. For current, NWT-specific legal and procedural guidance, you need a resource that reflects the post-2020 landscape.

Using Both the FFCNWT and Independent Resources

The best approach for a prospective NWT foster parent is to engage both the FFCNWT and independent sources. The FFCNWT gives you the human network — real people in your community who know what this work looks like on the ground. Independent resources give you the accurate procedural and legal foundation you need before you start the process.

The Northwest Territories Foster Care Guide was built to complement the FFCNWT's support role, not replace it. It provides the current legislative framework, the per-diem structure by community, the home study preparation tools, and the conflict escalation roadmap — the information that the FFCNWT itself would give you if it had the bandwidth and the mandate to produce a fully updated, parent-focused resource.

Between the two, prospective foster parents in the NWT are genuinely well-equipped. The territory needs caregivers. The system needs parents who know what they are getting into. These resources exist to make sure you do.

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