Indigenous Children, Youth and Families: Understanding Legislation and Policies

Overview

Course description

This course will review the policy, legislation, and practice standards governing Indigenous child, youth, and family services, including Indigenous child welfare authorities. A review of the impacts of colonial legislative policies on the lives of Indigenous children, youth and families in B.C. will be addressed in the current context. Addressing the need for systems accountability will also be emphasized.

Course content

The following Indigenous principles guide the design and delivery of this course:

Explore specific policies and legislation that empower practitioners to work respectfully and effectively with Indigenous children, youth, families, and communities involved with Indigenous and mainstream systems.
Understand the concept of Indigenous control over services to Indigenous children, youth and families as a necessary element in Reconciliation.
Practitioners who understand the systems in which they work can access resources and effectively use the network of services and agencies.
Understand how to respectfully address biased principles, value statements and policies.

Learning activities

Lecture
Group Work
Student Presentations
Guest Speakers
Audio-Visual Presentations

All methods of instruction apply to in class, hybrid and/or online modes of learning.

Means of assessment

This course will conform to the Douglas College Evaluation Policy regarding the number and weighting of evaluations.

Written Assignments
Group Presentations
Self Assessment
Classroom Activity Participation
Other

This is a letter-graded course

Instructors may use a student’s record of attendance and/or level of active participation as part of the student’s graded performance. Expectations and grade calculations regarding class attendance and participation will be clearly defined in the instructor course outline.

Students in the CYCC program are required to maintain a minimun grade of 60% (C) in all CYCC courses in order to progress in the program. Additionally, CYCC 1220 and CYCC 2432 will require a minimum grade of 65% (C+) in order to be applied as a pre-requisite.

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

Interpret current policy issues of Indigenous child welfare, education, and youth justice specific to the needs of Indigenous children, youth, families and communities.
Examine organizational procedures and structures of agencies that impact Indigenous children, youth, and families, both historically and currently.
Explore how the youth justice system intersects with the child welfare system and the impact on Indigenous children, youth, families, and communities.
Apply knowledge of specific policies, legislation and procedures governing Indigenous child welfare, youth justice and education to individual situations.
Develop an informed position to engage in advocacy for the needs of Indigenous children, youth and families.

Textbook materials

Textbooks and materials are to be purchased by students. A list of required textbooks and materials is provided for students at the beginning of the semester.

Requisites

Prerequisites

Course is restricted to Indigenous Pathway students. Students from other programs, please contact coordinator for registration.

Corequisites

None

Equivalencies

CYCC 2211

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

September 2026 (Current)

May 2008

Course Transfers to Other Institutions

Below are current transfer agreements from Douglas College to other institutions for the current course guidelines only. For a full list of transfer details and archived courses, please see the BC Transfer Guide.

Institution	Transfer details for CYCC 2212
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU)	No credit
Langara College (LANG)	LANG GNST 2XXX (3)
Simon Fraser University (SFU)	SFU INDG 222 (3)
Thompson Rivers University (TRU)	TRU CYCA 2309 (3)
Trinity Western University (TWU)	TWU GENS 2XX (3)
University of the Fraser Valley (UFV)	UFV CYC 2XX (3)
University of Victoria (UVIC)	UVIC IS 2XX (1.5)
Vancouver Island University (VIU)	VIU CYC 2nd (3)