The Case For Readiness-Based System For Leaving Child Welfare Care
In 1986 I received a copy of the National Youth In Care Network publication ( written by a former youth in care Brian Raychaba) “On My Own With No Direction From Home”. It depicted how our child protection systems across the country, systems meant to care for and nurture children, often did neither and then arbitrarily “aged them out” , dumping them out alone and unprepared at 18 years of age to 21 years of age depending on Provincial and Territorial Jurisdiction.
That was 35 years ago.
Since then I have met thousands of youth in and from care. I have witnessed their journey described 35 years ago. Over the years I have read report after report, study after study describing the ordeal of life in care. I have witnessed countless youth from care baring their souls publicly describing their pain in hopes of affecting change for those coming after them. I have read academic studies describing the outcomes for youth leaving care. A high school graduation rate of no better than 45% anywhere in the country for youth in care compared to an average graduation rate of 80% for young people with no in care experience. 40plus % of the homeless population in Canada having had an in care experience. Youth from care overrepresented in youth justice systems, mental health systems. Indigenous and Black children, LGBTQ youth overrepresented
It does not have to be this way.
During the pandemic in Ontario two organizations, (Ontario Children’s Advancement Coalition and Youth In Care Canada) youth and first voice led (“First Voice” meaning those with lived experience in child protection systems) have worked hard to ensure that young people in care are not aging out into the maelstrom of a health crisis. Ontario was the first Province ,to its credit, to listen and set a moratorium. In recent days these first voice advocates pushed for an extension to the moratorium which was to end June 30 and they won an extension until December 31st, 2020.
Young people in and from care have a saying #notstoppinghere. They have identified that we are in a moment where fundamental change is possible. We all, including our governments, speak of creating a “new normal”. We have established an ethos of “we are all in it together”. The strife that the pandemic has caused has laid bare the inequities that exist in our society and there is ample evidence that many if not most of us are willing to address those inequities.
Young people in and from care have called for an end forever to “aging out” in favour of a readiness-based process of leaving care.
It is a revolutionary suggestion rooted in evidence and common sense.
At this point a child protection system demands a young person leave their foster home or group home to live on their own, ready or not, at the age of 18 years. The system demands a young person at 21 years of age, ready or not, cease any contact for support from the system that has served as a surrogate parent. Imagine if child protection were only able to make these demands of a young person in its care if the young person was ready to meet the demands.
Imagine a system that could not force young people out unless they possessed the documents they needed; their Social Insurance Number or Birth Certificate or Immigration status in Canada resolved.
Imagine a system that could not force a young person to leave unless they had graduated from high school.
Imagine a system that could no longer force a youth to leave unless the young person could identify five relationships that were stable, reliable, and positive , one of those relationships being with a positive older adult.
Imagine a system where young people could no longer be jettisoned away without knowing their own story, without knowing their own culture and community.
Imagine these benchmarks and so many more guiding a system pushed to achieve them.
Imagine how differently our governments and systems would be forced to parent children in care. These kinds of markers would be specific and measurable. Agencies, governments could be held accountable for them.
It would be a step towards establishing systemic love moving away from systemic racism
A readiness process would force a change in culture in the institutions of child welfare. For example, if a goal was high school graduation the system would have to spend time with a child working towards educational attainment beginning the day it meets that child not when they want the young person to leave.
It sounds obvious doesn’t it? “It is not rocket science” said one youth. However, history has shown us that our colonial systems like the one we call “child welfare” cannot fundamentally change from inside. It is why it has been 35 years with little change in the lives of children in care.
Change must be spurred and led from the outside. The fundamental change to a readiness-based system proposed, that is so obvious, must be led by the first voice advocates themselves in partnership with government and stakeholders.
In Ontario the moratorium gives us 6 months to make it happen. We have a pandemic that has thrown all the cards in the air and an opportunity to put the deck back together again. There is absolutely no need to go back to a “normal” that was brutal for far too many children
I remember sitting with a Deputy Minister discussing what young people were telling me that they needed most – to be heard and known, to belong, to have caring adults in their lives. In frustration he commented “what the hell do you want me to do with that? We can’t legislate love!” I remember being stumped. When I related that exchange to a young person a few days later she told me “He is right you know. We can’t legislate love. But we can legislate the conditions in which love can flourish. Go back and tell him that”
Its time