CBC: Dirty clothes, lack of supervision: CFS agency raises concerns about emergency placements

December 17, 2025 —

Failing to report when a child is missing, sending kids to school in soiled clothes and refusing to learn how to treat a little girl’s medical condition are just a few of the concerns being raised by a Manitoba child welfare agency about emergency placement staff.

Jennifer Hedges, an assistant professor in the University of Manitoba’s faculty of social work and a former social worker, says situations where emergency placement workers are sending kids to school in dirty or inappropriate clothes or not teaching them how to brush their teeth shouldn’t be happening — and if they are, it’s important to find out why.

For the full story, please visit CBC News.

Faculty of Social Work

CBC: Manitoba’s new policy to charge CFS agencies for long emergency stays creating ‘chaos and confusion’: expert

Dr. Jennifer Hedges, an assistant professor in the University of Manitoba’s faculty of social work, said while it’s not ideal for kids to spend long periods of time in emergency placements, she wonders what kind of outcomes the “one and done” policy the province is enacting will achieve without examining the root issues that lead to kids ending up in those placements long-term.

Master’s research: Using theatre to help rewrite stories of traumatic mental health hospital stays

Eden Middleton, recipient of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) 2025 Canada Graduate Scholarships-Master’s (CGS-M) award, shares more about their research and vision for the future. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? My name is Eden Middleton (they/she) and I am a Settler Canadian from Treaty 7, Moh’kins’tsis. I come from a farming family, grew up camping in the Rockies, and studied English and Drama at the University of Calgary. This sparked a love for critical theory and the arts-based research that I’m translating into my Master in Social Work program here at the University of Manitoba. I’m also a practicing theatre artist, working as a playwright, dramaturg, producer and theatre-maker.