welcome to NativeCourtworkers

Community Outreach

Employees of the Association have an important role to play in the community.  Workers participate in a variety of justice-related committees to establish networks and partnerships and to advocate for community services for aboriginal people.

Throughout the province, there are numerous requests for participation in inter-agency and community-based committees.  Some of these committees include crime prevention, court user committees, treatment centres, school and youth committees, First Nation committees, probation services, and friendship centres.

Our goal is to identify how we can assist other agencies in providing better services to aboriginal people, and to identify how other agencies can assist us to provide better services to our clients.

Partnerships

The Association is open to those agencies or committees wanting to discuss partnership agreements.

Advocacy

Workers advocate for appropriate community services for aboriginal people.  They ensure that clients are receiving appropriate services by:

• facilitating for fair and equal services for clients.  If a client is not receiving appropriate service from an organization, probation services, crown counsel, the courts, etc., they will ensure the client’s needs are being met. 

• assisting clients with the Police Complaints procedure if the client wants to file a complaint against the police.

• advocating for the creation of restorative justice initiatives in your community.

Education/Training

Our employees are trained to provide workshops and training to criminal justice personnel on aboriginal cultural traditions, values, languages, socio-economic conditions and issues.

The priority of this work is to ensure that the justice system personnel are reminded that aboriginal people have the right to have their cultural background taken into consideration during justice processes.

Staff members keep an updated resource list of aboriginal organizations and First Nations bands in the province of British Columbia and stay informed about aboriginal programs, services, support groups, and elder resources.

Workers provide justice personnel with information regarding aboriginal initiatives that may be conducive to the justice process, as well as provide information to justice personnel regarding local aboriginal cultural practices, specific to their area, ie sweat lodges, long houses, big houses, etc.

Workers may also encourage justice personnel to take part in cultural workshops and aboriginal celebrations and co-ordinate/facilitate cultural and diversity awareness workshops.

Being involved in their communities assists in gaining an understanding of what justice issues the community requires. Community issues are continually evolving and the information provided may be helpful to empower change.