Episode 22 | Catherine Talbott

Retired and taking to social media to ask "Who Cares?"

Catherine Talbott was adopted as a toddler and she was removed and placed back into government care at the age of twelve; she never lived with her family again. Catherine has worked in the child welfare sector for over 30 years and has recently retired. She was the founder of NOW Canada, a multi service agency based in Kelowna, BC which has served thousands of homeless and street entrenched youth, women and children. She has worked in the downtown Eastside of Vancouver for seven years with BC Housing, leading a multidisciplinary team of psychiatric nurses, drug and alcohol counsellors, youth workers, homelessness prevention workers and relocation support specialists. Catherine has worked on reserve with Indigenous communities, she was the Executive Director of an anti-violence organization (BC Society of transition Houses) and she was responsible for the province's response to domestic violence in BC through the Provincial Office of Domestic Violence within the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD). For the past eight years Catherine has led the MCFD strategic team responsible for the foster care giver rate reform which resulted in the first financial raise for foster and kinship caregivers in BC, the systemic overhaul of supports for over ten thousand youth aging out of government care now known as the SAJE program and she delivered the province's first strategic framework with Indigenous partners for youth justice reform in BC. Catherine has received multiple awards including the YM/ YWCA, Women of Distinction Award. Catherine is a mom, a wife, a very proud nana and she resides on Vancouver Island, BC. ______________________________________________________________________

RESOURCES/REFERENCES

*Severe trigger warning

Don't Look Away report calls for collective action to ensure safety for children - Ending Violence BC.

NOW Canada https://www.nowcanada.ca/

BC Society of Transition Houses https://bcsth.ca/

BC Housing https://www.bchousing.org/about

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Connect with Catherine

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/who_caresinbc/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ct.cares?lang=en

Connect with Kristal

Website: https://kristalparke.net/

Merch | Voices Collection: https://kristalparke.net/merch/

Email: [email protected]

Socials:

@kristalparkeofficial

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristalparkeofficial/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@KristalParkeOfficial

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kristalparkeofficial

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