Care Carried with you
Real-Time Support for Youth, Families, and Frontline Workers
At Indigenous Youth Services, we are deeply committed to advancing the Child Welfare field by reshaping how care and support are delivered to both youth and caregivers. Too often, young people in care face instability, disrupted relationships, and inconsistent guidance. We believe every child deserves the opportunity to experience stability, belonging, and meaningful connection, no matter the challenges they encounter along their journey.
CareLink is a groundbreaking program designed to transform the way youth and caregivers experience support within the child welfare system. Too often, young people in care face instability, disrupted relationships, and a constant cycle of starting over with every placement change. CareLink breaks this cycle by offering an unbroken chain of support, providing reliability, continuity, and stability wherever a youth’s journey takes them.
At its core, CareLink offers two integrated portals, one for youth and one for caregivers. The Youth Portal empowers young people with 24/7 access to interactive tools, journaling, life skills development, and real-time support. The Caregiver Portal equips parents, foster families, and frontline staff with trauma-informed strategies, cultural resources, and ongoing coaching, all centered around the youth they are caring for. Together, these portals create a continuous circle of care that adapts and grows with each child.
What makes CareLink revolutionary is its ability to provide consistency across placements. Unlike traditional supports that reset whenever a youth moves, CareLink travels with them, ensuring their progress, history, and support network remain intact. This approach not only reduces trauma caused by repeated disruptions but also builds long-term resilience, trust, and stronger outcomes.
By combining cutting-edge technology with evidence-based practices and culturally responsive frameworks, CareLink is reshaping the child welfare landscape. It ensures that every youth and caregiver has the tools, guidance, and community needed to thrive.
CareLink exists to prevent crises before they happen. Traditional systems are reactive; help is usually provided only after a serious incident. CareLink shifts that model entirely by responding at the earliest signs of distress, frustration, or confusion. When someone reaches out, a specialist listens, assesses the situation, and immediately offers guidance that de-escalates emotions, reduces conflict, and restores a sense of control. This real-time support not only resolves the moment but also strengthens the skills and understanding needed to handle future challenges more effectively.
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What is CareLink?
CareLink is an innovative virtual support system designed to provide youth and caregivers with the stability, resources, and guidance they need to thrive. Built on a foundation of cultural responsiveness and evidence-based practice, CareLink bridges the gaps in traditional child welfare by ensuring that support is accessible anytime, anywhere.
Through secure virtual platforms, CareLink delivers:
- Youth Supports – Individualized virtual sessions, life skills training, mentorship, and crisis response for ages 12–22.
- Caregiver Coaching – Practical strategies, cultural care integration, and stress-management tools to strengthen caregiver confidence.
- Learning Portals – Interactive educational modules with lectures, quizzes, and discussion boards to build resilience and foster growth.
- Continuity of Care – Ongoing communication, progress tracking, and crisis planning to prevent placement breakdowns.
Unlike traditional services that can be inconsistent or disrupted by moves, CareLink ensures that every youth and caregiver has uninterrupted access to care, mentorship, and tools for long-term success.
Youth Portal
The Youth Portal is a dynamic, personalized platform that gives young people the tools they need to succeed both in care and in life. Through interactive cultural modules, skill-building supports, daily journaling, and consistent access to IYS Support Staff via check-ins and secure messaging, the portal provides youth with a safe space to learn, reflect, and connect. By combining practical resources with meaningful guidance, the Youth Portal helps youth strengthen their identity, build resilience, and develop the skills essential for long-term stability and success.
- Cultural Connections: Interactive information sessions, slideshows, and videos are paired with engaging games and quizzes to help youth explore their history, language, community, and culture. This personalized, immersive approach ensures that learning about identity and heritage is both meaningful and fun, strengthening cultural pride and connection.
- Success Support: We work alongside existing care networks to create individualized plans that help youth achieve their personal support goals. These plans may include life-skill development, emotion labeling, de-escalation strategies, or even practical tools like résumé building. Each plan is fully tailored to the youth’s unique needs and evolves with them, providing guidance and growth as they transition through adolescence and into adulthood.
- Daily Journal: Accessible anytime through the CareLink Portal, the Daily Journal makes it simple for youth to record entries right from their phone. Each journal is personalized with prompts and emotion scales to help youth reflect on their day, track which interventions were effective, and note areas of challenge. Journals also provide a space to capture important thoughts or experiences they’d like to share with their care teams, ensuring their voice remains central in their support journey.
- Bi-Weekly Check-In: Each youth will receive bi-weekly virtual calls with their IYS Support Staff, providing a consistent space to review progress, discuss challenges, and celebrate achievements. These check-ins help identify what supports are working, where adjustments are needed, and ensure that youth feel continuously connected, guided, and supported throughout their care journey.
- Support Staff Messager: Within their CareLink Portal, youth have access to a 24/7 virtual chat feature that allows them to stay connected with their IYS Support Staff. They can leave messages at any time, request clarification on materials, or discuss their care and support plans. This ongoing access ensures youth never feel alone in their journey and always have a direct line to guidance and encouragement.
Together, these features create a supportive, connected, and empowering environment that travels with the youth wherever life takes them. Instead of starting over with each new placement, the Youth Portal ensures their voice, progress, learning, and relationships remain consistent and intact. By combining culturally grounded learning, emotional supports, practical skill development, and ongoing access to a trusted IYS Support Staff, the Youth Portal becomes a stable anchor in an often unstable system, helping youth build confidence, resilience, and a clear path forward.
Caregiver Portal
The Caregiver Portal is a dynamic, practical platform that gives caregivers, foster parents, and staff the tools they need to provide stable and compassionate support. With access to youth-centered information, trauma-informed strategies, care journals, support approaches, and direct communication with IYS Support Staff through check-ins and secure messaging, caregivers are never left without guidance. By combining practical resources with meaningful connection, the Caregiver Portal strengthens confidence, consistency, and collaboration across the entire care team.
- About (the youth): This module provides caregivers and staff with vital, youth-centered information to guide meaningful and effective support. It includes Cultural Connections, mental health needs, social history, likes and dislikes, and life goals, along with personal notes directly from the youth. By sharing their own perspectives on what they want caregivers and staff teams to know, youth remain at the heart of their care, ensuring services are personalized, respectful, and empowering.
- Support Approaches: Outlines individualized strategies to help caregivers and staff provide consistent, effective support. It includes identified triggers and trauma points, common behavioral responses, and detailed care plans tailored to each youth. By centralizing this information, Support Approaches ensure every member of the care team is equipped with the insight and tools needed to respond with understanding, consistency, and compassion.
- Care Journal: The Care Journal provides caregivers with a dedicated space to record daily observations, progress notes, and reflections on the youth’s care. Caregivers can document what strategies worked, note challenges, and highlight moments of growth or concern. A key feature includes Highlight Notes for Care Teams, allowing important updates, patterns, or urgent considerations to be flagged for quick visibility. This ensures that the entire care network stays aligned, informed, and responsive to the youth’s evolving needs
- Bi-Weekly Check-ins: Caregivers will receive bi-weekly virtual calls with their IYS Support Staff, creating a consistent opportunity to share updates, discuss challenges, and receive guidance. These check-ins provide practical strategies, reassurance, and tailored support, ensuring caregivers feel equipped and connected in meeting the unique needs of the youth in their care. Support Staff Messager: Within their CareLink Portal, caregivers have access to a 24/7 virtual chat feature that keeps them directly connected with their IYS Support Staff. Caregivers can leave messages at any time, request clarification on strategies or training materials, or discuss elements of the youth’s care plan. This continuous access ensures caregivers always have timely guidance, practical support, and reassurance as they navigate the challenges of providing care.
- Consistency: The CareLink Portal follows each youth throughout their journey in the child welfare system, ensuring that every caregiver, staff member, and placement has access to vital information. By building on past supports, learning from previous strategies, and maintaining continuity of care, the portal creates a seamless support system that grows with the youth and fosters stability at every stage.
Together, the features of the Caregiver Portal create a unified, informed care environment that strengthens outcomes for every youth. By delivering individualized tools to both young people and the adults who support them, CareLink ensures that everyone is aligned, prepared, and working from the same foundation of understanding and compassion. This dual-support model, where youth receive personalized guidance and caregivers receive tailored strategies, creates genuine stability. When caregivers feel confident and youth feel heard, placements strengthen, communication improves, and the overall care experience becomes safer, more consistent, and significantly more effective. CareLink brings all elements together, empowering teams to provide the highest quality support throughout every stage of the youth’s journey.
