Welcome to IICRD's Hear the Child Project
Meaningful Child Participation in BC Family Justice Processes
Kelowna Pilot Project
A process to get the views of children before decision-makers in family court processes was piloted in Kelowna between October 1, 2005 and October 31, 2006 as part of this Project.
Hear the Child Interview Evaluation is the pdf evaluation report for the Kelowna Pilot, released May 2007.
Project Background
The Hear the Child Project began in 2003 and focuses on ways to support children and their participation in family justice processes. It is framed by Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by Canada, and BC legislation that contemplates hearing and considering the views of children in decisions made about their best interests.
Child participation in this project is generally about children having an opportunity to share their views on matters that affect them with decision-makers, and to receive information in a way that they understand.
Since the Project's inception, the current state of child participation in BC family courts (child protection and custody/access matters) has been reviewed and strengths identified that can be built upon to support meaningful child participation in family justice processes (see Through the Eyes of Young People available at www.iicrd.org/familycourt).
The following are documents that were used during the Kelowna pilot.
Consent Form for families to complete if they wanted to participate in the pilot.
Interviewer Roster provides a list of people who agreed to interview children for the pilot.
Interview Intake Form was completed and provided to the interviewer (content agreed upon by the parties).
