When a child is permanently placed in foster care after a continuing custody order (CCO) is issued it’s almost never reversed, just ask longtime social worker and team leader at Phoenix Transition Society, Kyla-Rae Laferdy.
“I’ve never in coming up to 20 years in social work practice ever seen a CCO reversed,” Laferdy said.
“But I’ve seen one now.”
An Indigenous woman came to the Phoenix Transition House and its Harmony House in need and was welcomed with open arms.
Phoenix Transition House provides temporary shelter to women and their children who are fleeing domestic violence. Harmony House provides support for women who are struggling with mental health or problematic substance use, are pregnant or new mothers at risk of losing their child to the care of the Ministry of Children and Family Development.
Originally from Dawson Creek, the Indigenous woman, who shall remain anonymous, said she needed to come to Prince George for care when her struggles got to be too much.
After losing her sister in a motor vehicle crash and her brother went missing in 2016, she eventually fell deep into her addiction.
“I was pregnant and in addiction and back in Dawson Creek there was no help at all,” she said.
“And so I ended up going into labour and had my son in Dawson Creek and I still basically had my feet still in the stirrups when the ministry (of Children and Family Development) came and took him.”
Her son was born the summer of 2022.
Mom was able to be with baby for about 14 hours until he was flown to UHNBC in Prince George where he stayed for about three weeks.
Mom spent three days in the hospital in Dawson Creek, got on the Northern Health Connection bus, and went straight into detox in Prince George.
“I wasn’t allowed to see baby because I was in detox and he had been apprehended by the ministry,” Mom said with eyes downcast.
She contacted her Dawson Creek support worker to see if she could help.
“I was looking for a transition house so I could get help while I smartened up so I could get baby back,” Mom said.
At that time Phoenix and Harmony House were physically close so under Harmony House mandate the young woman was offered a spot at Phoenix House until a bed opened up at Harmony House.
“I didn’t know what the next steps were going to be when I got to Phoenix House,” she said.
“I was so used to nothing ever working out.”
Mom was able to visit her newborn son as he spent three weeks in hospital.
“And then one day I went to visit and he was gone,” she said.
Baby had been placed in foster care.
Thanks to Beverly Zorn, Harmony House team leader, who advocated for the young woman, the baby was returned to his mother after a week in foster care.
“I have had my son back since he was a month old thanks to all the support I was getting at Phoenix,” Mom said with a smile.
She went to Harmony House from Sept. 19 to Oct. 19, 2022 then both she and baby went to Peardonville residential treatment centre in Abbotsford until Jan. 26, 2023.
“I guess I did awesome at treatment,” Mom said. “It ended up being a huge breakthrough for me because it was the first time I got to see a trauma counsellor. I had a lot of stuff validated from my life and I realized that I couldn’t help how I was raised but I could continue to do better and I am capable of doing better.”
From the treatment centre the young mother was able to return to Prince George and stayed at Phoenix House until she was placed in the Phoenix second stage housing program in June 2023.
During her recovery the woman started to think of what the future could look like for the first time in a long time and wanted to change the fact that there were two people missing from her family.
The young mother has two older boys from another relationship with an abusive partner who is now deceased.
During that relationship the woman said she was in a really dark place, the lowest time in her life, and the boys had been put in foster care when they were seven and eight years old in February 2018. Mom had visits with her sons in person and virtually throughout that time but wanted to keep her distance from them when she was in the deepest part of her addiction.
“I didn’t want them to see me like that,” she said with sadness. “It was better to take a step back rather than continue to hurt them.”
As she became stronger and more secure in her recent recovery in Prince George, the young woman reached out to let everyone know that she wanted her children back.
“But only if they wanted to come home,” she was quick to say. “If they didn’t want to be back with me that was fine. It was their choice.”
Both of her sons, now 14 and 12, wanted to be reunited with their mother and their baby brother but there was an obstacle in their way.
“The ministry had issued a continuing custody order for both boys, placing them permanently in care of the director, which is the Province of BC,” Laferdy added. “So taking away all of the mother’s parental rights.”
The continuing custody order had been issued in April 2022.
With many advocates by her side during this journey, the young woman went to court to have the continuing custody order successfully rescinded on Oct. 18, 2024.
“It was crazy,” she said. “My judge had tears in her eyes, my social worker had tears in her eyes – even my lawyer had tears in his eyes.”
The young woman has now come full circle, living in BC Housing and with the continued support of advocates now works part time at Harmony House.
She said she will soon begin the schooling she needs to become a social worker as she feels with her lived experience she can help those in need.
“Everything this young woman has done since the CCO was put in place has been just remarkable,” Laferdy said with a huge smile. “She did it! She did it!”
