CareLInk: Virtual Care
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.
- 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.
Support That Does Not Disappear
CareLink is a virtual support platform created to ensure Indigenous youth and the people who care for them are never left without connection, guidance, or continuity. No matter where a youth lives, how often circumstances change, or what systems they move through, CareLink remains a steady source of support.
CareLink exists because stability should not depend on placement. Support should not vanish when life becomes complicated.
Why CareLink Was Created
Many Indigenous youth grow up navigating systems that change faster than they can adapt to. New homes, new workers, new expectations, and new plans often arrive without warning. Each transition risks undoing progress, weakening trust, and reinforcing the feeling that nothing lasts.
CareLink was created to interrupt that pattern.
Rather than tying support to a single program or location, CareLink stays with the youth. It holds their history, preserves relationships, and maintains momentum even when everything else shifts. The goal is not to manage behavior in moments of crisis, but to provide consistent support that helps youth feel grounded, capable, and understood over time.
Support where and when it's needed
CareLink is not designed to replace in-person care, family relationships, or community connection. It is designed to strengthen them by providing consistency where systems often fall short.
Traditional care systems are frequently disrupted by transitions, staffing changes, and shifting environments. Each disruption can reset progress, fracture relationships, and force youth and caregivers to start over. CareLink operates differently.
Rather than restarting support, CareLink carries understanding, history, and progress forward through dedicated Youth and Caregiver Portals that remain accessible across change. These portals provide individualized spaces for learning, reflection, and guidance, ensuring support does not disappear when circumstances shift.
Instead of reacting only when challenges escalate, CareLink offers steady, ongoing guidance through regular check-ins, skill development, and real-time connection. Instead of expecting youth to adapt alone, CareLink stays present for both youth and caregivers as a consistent point of support, communication, and growth.
By maintaining continuity across change and supporting both sides of the care relationship, CareLink creates the conditions for meaningful growth, reflection, and long-term development rather than short-term control or crisis management.
Youth Portal
The Youth Portal is a personalized virtual space that gives young people consistent access to the tools, guidance, and relationships they need to navigate care and build a stable future. It combines culturally grounded learning, practical skill development, and ongoing connection with Indigenous Youth Services Support Staff in one secure, accessible platform.
Through interactive content, journaling, and regular check-ins, the Youth Portal provides youth with a safe space to reflect, learn, and stay connected, even as their circumstances change. Rather than resetting support, the portal carries progress, relationships, and learning forward.
Cultural Connection
Youth engage in interactive cultural learning through videos, activities, and guided content that explore identity, history, language, and community. This immersive approach helps strengthen cultural pride and belonging in ways that feel meaningful, accessible, and engaging.
Personalized Support
Each youth receives an individualized support plan developed alongside their existing care network. These plans may focus on life skills, emotional awareness, de-escalation strategies, communication, or practical tools such as résumé building. Support evolves with the youth, adapting as their needs and goals change over time.
Daily Journaling
The Daily Journal is accessible anytime through the CareLink Portal and allows youth to reflect on their day directly from their phone or device. Personalized prompts and emotion scales help youth track what is working, identify challenges, and express thoughts they want shared with their care team, ensuring their voice remains central.
Ongoing Support
Youth participate in bi-weekly virtual check-ins with Indigenous Youth Services Support Staff to review progress, talk through challenges, and celebrate achievements.
Between sessions, secure messaging allows youth to reach out at any time for guidance, clarification, or encouragement.
Together, these features create a stable, supportive environment that travels with the youth wherever life takes them. Instead of starting over with each transition, the Youth Portal preserves identity, progress, and connection, helping youth build confidence, resilience, and a clearer path forward.
Caregiver portal
The Caregiver Portal is a practical, relationship-centered space designed to support caregivers, foster parents, and staff in providing stable, compassionate care. It brings together youth-centered information, trauma-responsive strategies, reflective tools, and direct access to Indigenous Youth Services Support Staff, ensuring caregivers are never left without guidance or connection.
By combining practical resources with ongoing support, the Caregiver Portal strengthens confidence, consistency, and collaboration across the entire care team.
Youth-Centered Insight
Caregivers and staff have access to meaningful information about the youth they support, including cultural connections, mental health needs, social history, personal preferences, and life goals. Youth are invited to share their own perspectives on what they want caregivers to understand, keeping their voice central and ensuring care remains respectful, individualized, and empowering.
Support Approaches
Each youth has individualized support strategies that outline identified triggers, trauma points, common responses, and tailored care plans. By centralizing this information, the portal ensures that all caregivers and staff respond with consistency, understanding, and compassion rather than trial and error.
Care Journaling
The Care Journal provides a shared space for caregivers to record observations, progress, and reflections. Care teams can document what strategies are effective, note emerging challenges, and highlight important patterns or updates. Key information can be flagged for quick visibility, helping the entire support network stay aligned and responsive.
Ongoing Guidance and Support
Caregivers participate in bi-weekly virtual check-ins with Indigenous Youth Services Support Staff to discuss challenges, receive guidance, and refine support approaches. In addition, secure messaging allows caregivers to reach out at any time for clarification, reassurance, or practical advice, ensuring support is available when it is needed most.
Continuity Across Change
The Caregiver Portal follows each youth throughout their care journey, providing continuity even as placements or staff change. By building on past learning and maintaining access to essential information, the portal prevents support from resetting and helps create stability at every stage.
Together, these features create a unified care environment where caregivers feel supported and youth feel understood. By providing personalized tools for both youth and the adults who support them, CareLink strengthens communication, improves placement stability, and supports safer, more effective care over time.