Payukotayno James & Hudson Bay Family Services

The development of Payukotayno James and Hudson Bay Family Services was the result of the growing demand in the 1970's for First Nations people to deliver their own child welfare services. The child welfare system at the time was seen as being inadequate and inappropriate to the needs of the native people it was mandated to serve. Previous services did not reflect the cultural values and social norms of the native communities involved. Native people virtually had no choice but to accept services from a system whose alien concepts and standards frequently conflicted with those of native people and this conflict tended to create and perpetuate problems and needs.

Out of this evolved the concept of native child welfare services and organizations such as Payukotayno James and Hudson Bay Family Services emerged in the early 1980's. The concept of Payukotayno was endorsed by the Ministry of Community and Social Services with the assistance and support of North Cochrane District Family Services.

Payukotayno was officially incorporated on July 12, 1984, to assume total responsibility for child welfare services previously handled by other agencies in the south. Its new mandate was to build new services geared to meet the requirements of the Child and Family Services Act and to take into account the traditional aspects of the Cree people.