Former Child and Youth Advocate Bernard Richard joins Partners For Youth as a Special Advisor
Partners For Youth Inc. is happy to announce former provincial Child and Youth Advocate and Ombudsman Bernard Richard has joined our organization as a Special Advisor. Mr. Richard has been a friend of the organization for many years and was particularly instrumental in developing what would become Dots NB.
His early career was in Social Work, law, and as Secretary General of the Société Nationale de l’Acadie. Mr. Richard also served as MLA in New Brunswick from 1991 to 2003. During that time, he occupied several cabinet positions, including: Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Affairs, Justice, Education, and Social Policy Renewal.
Mr. Richard was later appointed as New Brunswick’s 6th Ombudsman (2004 – 2011) and also served as the province’s first Child and Youth Advocate (2006 – 2011). He has since worked on a variety of assignments as a mediator, lawyer (City of Fredericton, Prince Edward Island Provincial Auditor General), and consultant (New Brunswick Legislative Assembly, Canada-Newfoundland-Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, New Brunswick Assembly of First Nations Chiefs).
In November 2016, he was appointed as British Columbia’s second Representative for Children and Youth, a job he recently left to take up the role of Senior Advisor to the Mi’gmaq Child and Family Services Agency which serves seven Mi’gmaq First Nations.
He has received several prizes and awards and has worked with a number of non-profit organizations focused on the rights and interests of children and youth, the plight of children in developing countries (Plan International Canada), and the wellbeing of Indigenous children (First Nations Children Futures Fund).