Ktunaxa Kinbasket Child & Family Services opens new urban office in Cranbrook

Ktunaxa Kinbasket Child & Family Services opens new urban office in Cranbrook

KKCF President Rob Eneas cuts the ribbon to the new urban center in Cranbrook. — Dan Williams photo

The Ktunaxa Kinbasket Child and Family Services (KKCFS) have reason to celebrate now that they have opened their main office in the city of Cranbrook. An exceptional partnership between the Metis, the Ktunaxa and the Shuswap, KKCFS delivers support services to First Nations, Metis and Inuit children, families and communities within the traditional boundary of the Ktunaxa territory—on and off reserve. 

Eighty-five per cent of aboriginal people live off reserve. Reserves in Creston, Invermere and Cranbrook do have workers assigned to each one, but there has been a real need to deliver services from a central location—specifically in early child development and prevention. 

Earlier in 2011, the province’s Children and Family Development Ministry offered infrastructure grants in early April of this year. Everything came together quickly and within a few months of the government’s announcement, KKCFS’s downtown Cranbrook office became a reality.

“This is another step (in) re-establishing our presence in our (Ktunaxa) territory,” said Kathryn Teneese, Ktunaxa Nation chair. "And in terms of the service delivery, it is a very important aspect of our government. (It is of critical importance) that we are doing things to ensure that children and families are looked after because they are obviously the foundation of who we are as a people."

The KKCFS is a non-profit society that is governed by a board of directors representing the St. Marys, Akisqnuk, Lower Kootenay, Tobacco Plains, Shuswap and Metis communities.