Province helping youths leaving CFS system with three-month EIA ‘unconditional income’

The province is making it easier for youths transitioning out of care to access employment income assistance.

Conditions on benefits will be waived for three months, to create a “time-limited, unconditional income,” Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine said Monday.

The changes will allow for direct enrolment on income assistance upon aging out of care, Fontaine said.

“The data tells us young adults exiting care disproportionately experience homelessness and insecure housing,” she said. “Financial insecurity is a key contributor to housing insecurity.”

The province has also created a Youth Pathways Team that will co-ordinate with Child and Family Services agencies before and after youth exit care, to help them apply for assistance before turning 18 to make sure there are no gaps in services.

Every year, more than 650 young adults transition out of CFS care at the age of 18, the province said in a news release.

The most recent annual report from the Families Department showed 9,172 youth in care across various CFS agencies for the 2024–25 reporting period, up from 8,919 the year prior, an increase of nearly three per cent and the first notable rise in nearly a decade.

“The goal is simple: make it easier for eligible youth to access the supports they need when they need them,” Fontaine said.

The province also be giving $1.7 million to seven organizations that aid young adults who leave the Child and Family Services system.

Selena Starling, chief executive officer of Community of Big Hearts, and a former youth in care, said she used to have to be her own advocate, but many children in foster care don’t have one now.

“I’m currently helping my younger siblings who are aging out of foster care right now, and it’s resources like this that are going to continue to support young people, going to be able to give them access to funding, a better life, and to know that we deserve funding regardless of where we came from and regardless of where we are going,” she said.

Initiatives for Just Communities, the Inuit Association of Manitoba, New Directions for Children, Youth, Adults & Families, Ndinawe Youth Resource Centre, FASD Life’s Journey, the Spence Neighbourhood Association and Voices: Manitoba’s Youth in Care Network, will share the $1.7-million.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca