The current Ontario government is uniquely unqualified to undertake the task of an ethical child welfare system reset. Our hope continues to rest with young people and First Voice advocates
In the early 1990’s a group of youth in and from care making use of a ramshackle, grassroots centre supporting youth in the Greater Toronto Area organized a campaign they called “$416 Is Not Enough!” The “ $416 “ referred to the meagre amount of money they as young people who were required to leave care at 18 years of age, were given to live on their own, ready or not. This was termed “aging out” and for decades this system has led to catastrophic outcomes. Just one of many harrowing statistic ;43% of our homeless population has had an “in care” experience
$416 was certainly not enough. The young people managed with their strong voices to secure a meeting with then Premier Bob Rae. I remember one of the youth calling the Premier, “Dad”. It was the first time a group of youth in and from care had accurately confronted government with the stark responsibility it had to children who were taken into care and “placed” in an unforgiving system. It was not the last time. They convinced the Premier to raise the rate they were provided.
Then came the Harris government in retrospect looking very similar to the current Ford government in Ontario and programs were slashed, budgets cut and wins for young people in care revoked or undermined.
Flash forward to 2011. In March of that year hundreds of young people in and from care from across Ontario in partnership with the Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth held their own landmark “Youth Leaving Care Hearings” at the Ontario Legislature. Over 700 people attended the hearings and over 100 youth, senior bureaucrats, service providers, Ministers and politicians provided public testimony about the child protection system and how better outcomes for children in the system could be achieved. It is fair to say as young people put it “the hearings rocked the Legislature”.
Following the Hearings young people in and from care again supported by the Advocate’s Office wrote and released their Report “My Real Lifebook”. https://ocaarchives.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/ylc_report_eng.pdf
“We thought that what we wanted was an extension to the age at which young people are forced to live on their own, “25 is the new 21” was our call. But we soon realized that the system was so broken, that fundamental change was needed” Youth from Care
The report was responded to with what the government of the day called quick wins. Youth In Transition worker positions were created and established in community agencies across Ontario, tuition relief was provided for all youth in and from care at all post secondary institutions, youth were permitted to remain in a foster home if they chose even if they were beyond 18 years in order to complete high school.. Small victories, important victories, but not fundamental change.
This time the youth in from care, “First Voices” as they began calling themselves, said to themselves and the Province #NotStoppingHere. I remember that hashtag. I still use it. They did not stop.
They used the Inquests of Geoffery Baldwin and Katelynn Sampson, the unending tragedy of First Nation children in care and the overrepresentation of Black children and families in child protection to fuel changes to the new Child and Youth Family Services Act entrenching legally the voice of each child in every decision made concerning them and establishing legally the principle of child centre trauma informed service.
Despite blows from the current government incuding; the sudden closing of the Ontario Child Advocates Office, the huge cut to the budget of the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, the ballooning wait lists for youth mental health and special needs services Fist Voice advocates stood their ground.
First Voice advocates set the stage for today. Calling for a moratorium on forcing youth out of care into the maelstrom of the pandemic they had to push a recalcitrant government into action and every few months, like the proverbial dog with a bone, they have pushed the government to extend the extension. They refused to back down. They refused to stop there. They renewed their call for fundamental change.
They demand an “ethical system reset”. They want a system that operates from an ethic of caring centred in the well-being of a child not a system centred in liability and cost. They sought a permanent extension to the youth aging out process which jettisons young people “off the cliff alone and unprepared” at an arbitrary age. They sought a “readiness-based system” which would see young people only encouraged to live on their own when they felt ready. They sought and demanded that markers of readiness be established by young people themselves and that the markers be worked towards by the system beginning early on in the life of a child in care. They demanded a culture shift in our system which would allow this to be accomplished.
Today the Minister announces an 18 month extension to the moratorium on youth leaving care. Today the Minister is willing to enter into a partnership with First Voice Advocates through the Ontario Children’s Advancement Coalition and Youth In Care Canada to create a readiness-based system. I believe the government is uniquely unqualified for the task, never willing to abandon their bedrock set of assumptions; “open for business”, “smaller government”, “cut spending”, “cut red tape”. I believe our Province’s hope is in the young people, the First Voice advocates’ willingness to not stop here.
To all of Ontario this is my call to you. Let the young people who will embark on this next phase of their work know that they are not alone. Let them know you will hold the government accountable for any promise they fail to deliver upon Let them know that you are grateful for all who over the years who have taken us to this point. Let them know you too won’t stop here!