Interior Metis Child & Family Services

I am a Métis on both sides of my family tree, my Landry line has been in Canada since 1625. I spent my early years in Ste Rose Du Lac in Manitoba, and when I was eight our family moved to Williams Lake BC. This was a traumatic time for me, I didn’t speak any English and I didn’t know anyone. I left home at a young age (back when I knew it all) and had three children by the time I was twenty years old. After I left that abusive relationship I returned to Wms. Lake, where all of my family was. I still live and work in the Williams Lake area. I am very involved with the local Métis Assn. and was instrumental in getting the local office established. From the beginning of my involvement with the Métis Local, I was determined to head up the Social Services portfolio. I began attending meetings in the community and much to my dismay I realized I didn’t understand the lingo. That’s when I decided to go back to school.

My children were now grown up and moved from home, it was time for me. I began by taking the Crisis Line Training and a few simple courses to get me into the student mode, and then I signed on for the Social Service Worker Program, which I completed in 1999. I am currently employed by the Interior Métis Child and Family Services as the Family Preservation Worker for Williams Lake. We have recently started a drop in craft evening and we hold open discussions pertaining to issues that the participants feel strongly about. Some of these topics include Autism; Dealing with Anger in Children; Menopause; Violence in Relationships. We also maintain a food bank and clothing exchange for our clients. As you can see from the photos, I enjoy playing, that has been a benefit because children feel at ease around me. Sometimes they won’t leave me alone!!!.

After fulfilling my first career of raising my 3 children while at the same time operating a home based business, I decided to fulfill my life long ambition of becoming a social worker.  Therefore, when my youngest daughter went off to kindergarten, I went off to University to obtain my Bachelors Degree in Social Work.  Once again the academic urge has hit me, as I explore my next ambition of obtaining my Masters Degree. 

My first endeavour into social work was working with victims of crime at the RCMP Victim Services.  After several years of this I decided to complement this experience and work with offenders, which led me to a position at Adult Community Corrections.  From this experience I was afforded the opportunity to take on the development and implementation of a provincial pilot project aimed at housing high risk, mentally disordered offenders in a community setting.  I oversaw a compliment of both staff as well as clients at the Lighthouse project until I made a decision to join the team at Interior Metis Child & Family Services as the staff counsellor.  Since then I have worked on several dynamic projects including; the Roots project, an MCFD initiative to re-unify Metis children with their families and/or community; the “Families Are Forever” project, a project that I developed which aimed to proactively address familial breakdown. 

My most recent endeavour here has been the development of an Alternative Dispute Resolution project entitled “Maamuu”, meaning “Families Together”.  A grant from the Law Foundation of British Columbia has allowed us to develop this innovative new project.  The aim of the “Maamuu” project is to reduce the number of children entering into the family court system by providing a front end client driven process based on traditional customs of family preservation specific to the Metis community.  For more information on this project look under the “Maamuu” project on this site. 

When not working at the office I enjoy an active lifestyle which first and foremost includes my 3 children and 2 grandchildren.  In my spare time I take pleasure in snowboarding during the winter and then mountain biking as well as just relaxing at the beach in the summer.  In between these activities I can be found doing one of either; shopping around in Vancouver for funky boots, or searching local second hand shops for unique furniture pieces as well as china plates to create mosaics on.

I often get asked how I got my name and I thought that this would be a good format in which to let people know a little bit more about my name and who I am.

My father is originally from the heart of the Métis Homeland in Manitoba where he was initially raised by his Grandmother until being taken away and put in the Catholic Mission School in Brandon. He ran away from the school when he was 14 and after seeing his family he traveled west to British Columbia and finally settled in the Cariboo area around Williams Lake. He was fortunate enough to be taken under the wing of a Spanish Cowboy by the name of Eddy Moreno and was raised by Eddy until he enlisted to go to Korea. He always said that he would name his first son after Eddy but as my mother did not like the name Eddy, I was named Moreno. The first Goring to come to Canada was George Goring who emigrated in 1695 from Goring By Sea, England. He settled in Upper Canada and eventually married one of the Lambert girls named Leticia.

I grew up in the Interior of B.C. in a community called Walhachin. I graduated from Ashcroft Secondary School in 1981 and then went back to University when I was 32 years old. I finished off the Social Service Worker program and then took intermittent courses from there. The Aboriginal organizations I have worked for are: Métis Nation of Alberta, Treaty 6 & 7, School District #73 as a First Nations Support Worker and Interior Métis Child & Family Services (Formerly Kamloops Métis Family Services). I am one of the founding members of Kamloops Métis Family Services (now known as Interior Métis Child & Family Services or IMCFS) and its current Executive Director. I am very proud to have been able to play a part in the establishment of an agency that was designed and mandated to be able to serve the Métis people of this area and I continue to be excited about the many opportunities that we have as Métis people to empower one another in every aspect of establishing our Métis Nation. I am Proud to be Métis and will continue to work for the best tomorrow for our children and families.