What is SKY?
The SKY Coordinated Response is a “made in the West Kootenay” rural adaptation of a Child & Youth Advocacy Centre. It provides a collaborative response to children and youth aged 18 and under who have experienced abuse, reducing the potential for system-induced trauma.
SKY brings together agencies and individuals who respond when children and youth disclose abuse or violence. In an urban center, these agencies may work in one building called a Child and Youth Advocacy Centre (CYAC). SKY is a rural adaptation of this model that coordinates service providers without a brick-and-mortar center.
In each SKY community, we have child-friendly rooms where a child or youth can be interviewed by a specially trained interviewer in a way that reduces the trauma experienced by having to tell their story. The interview is recorded, so that, with consent, other investigative agencies can access the interview, preventing kids from telling their story repeatedly.
SKY serves approximately 50 children and youth per year. Young victims of abuse from diverse backgrounds, along with their siblings and their caregivers, receive consent-based support from SKY through the coordination of any one of six multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) located in Castlegar, Kaslo, Nakusp, Nelson, Salmo, and Trail. In this way, victims who have experienced trauma receive help in their own community. This helps reduce additional trauma that could be experienced after the abuse has occurred.
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What is SKY?
For Families
For Professionals
Who sits on our multidisciplinary teams (MDTs)?
Our MDTs consist of police, Ministry of Children and Families (MCFD), victim services, child and youth counselors, school partners, health services, Indigenous supports, and our SKY Coordinator.
Our SKY Coordinator works to explain SKY to families, ensure they are getting all the support they need, and keep the MDT coordinated. They also help to schedule and organize SKY interviews.
If you have any questions about SKY in your community, please contact the SKY Coordinator who covers your area.
How was SKY developed?
Agencies across the Kootenay Boundary region identified the need to better coordinate services in support of children and youth who’ve experienced abuse. In 2011, Kootenay Boundary Community Services Cooperative (KBCSC) received funding from the Department of Justice Canada to conduct a feasibility study. KBCSC members include non-profit community service agencies that support children, youth and families, and whose contracts include Victim Services and child and youth counselling.
The Feasibility Study proposed that select communities establish community-based CYAC teams, using a child advocate to coordinate the response (Read Feasibility Study in full on our Information & Resources page). Establishing a child-friendly space in each of these communities was also recommended.
Over the next few years, over 150 stakeholders developed this collaborative model across the region. SKY hosts teams and child-friendly interview spaces in Salmo, Nakusp, Kaslo, Castlegar, Trail, and Nelson.
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