Executive Director - George Simard, MSW.

It is essential to acknowledge the spiritual advisors, the aatsookaaniigan, the spiritual items, and mango-ininii, as they are the spiritual essence of our agency Weechi-it-te-win Family Services.

As one of the leaders of the agency, I would like to extend my gratitude and heart felt commitment to creating an alternative in Native Child Welfare. As Weechi-it-te-win has approached its first 20 years of services, let us not forget the road that has brought us here. Let us remember and acknowledge each other in our collective wisdom and especially let us honor each other in our mutual commitment to building something better for our communities, our families, and especially our children.

Our vision and our mandate have led the way to many different accomplishments.  In creating this alternative we have collectively begun to help our First Nation communities to rebuild and restore our Nationhood. No longer are children being taken away from us and placed for adoption in some part of the country foreign to our identity.  Our essence of customary care practices has given us the integrity and fortitude to help our children in the manner in which the Creator intended us to do.

Our customary care practices, our culturally congruent services, our creation of policies to empower our First Nation communities are efforts put forward by you.  The concepts and tenets of our Anishinaabe Laws with regards to Abinooji Inaakonigewin and Naaniigan Abinooji all compare to the mainstream concepts of “the best interest of the child”.  Our Council of Elders and our Board of Directors have established and lead the way to administratively harmonizing both mainstream and Anishinaabe Laws.  As this practice continues, we continue to empower our First Nation communities, and yet again we restore and we rebuild.

Let us continue to celebrate together.  Let us honor each other and let us continue to learn, to grow, and to empower each other and our work for the children.
With great honor, I welcome you to our agencies newest additions - our website.