CFS will fail me and others in care

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/01/2016 (3752 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Growing up in care in Manitoba, to say the least, is a challenge. When I was apprehended by a social worker and placed into an emergency placement, I had no understanding of the outcomes of youth in care or expectations of what it would be like. I was swiftly introduced to the hard-hitting realization — CFS will fail me.

In April, I am losing the support of a government that thought it could support me more than my parents could. Otherwise, surely it would not have removed me from my home, family and culture in the first place, right?

In June, a report from the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy determined that only 31.7 per cent of youth in care have completed secondary education. The recent Winnipeg Street Census found that almost half of those interviewed had spent time in a CFS placement. A flood of mostly indigenous youth are being dropped into the world, alone and ill-equipped. We face increased homelessness, poverty, substance abuse and incarceration. The care-to-prison pipeline is of significant concern to policy-makers.

Or is it?

This week, a case in the Human Rights Tribunal challenged funding models and the implementation of “Jordan’s principle” — a child-first principle used in Canada to resolve jurisdictional disputes within, and between governments, regarding payment for government services provided to First Nations children. It spoke out about balancing the rights to adequate provision of child-welfare programming to indigenous communities with the financially conscious taxpayer’s interest in mind. This has implications for the system as a whole. As a youth in care, this is energizing and promising.

However, it is extremely frustrating that necessary changes within child welfare require the actions and sacrifice of brave indigenous civilians such as Cindy Blackstock, the executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada to go through lengthy, complicated judicial systems in order to see justice.

I grew up in a system plagued with challenges. I drifted from home to home and even spent time homeless despite the fact that I had a multitude of social workers responsible for my care. My connection to community and family was stripped away and replaced with a governmental agency that is mandated to do a better job than my family, yet the only consistency it provides was with its constant failure and abandonment.

After the tragedy of Phoenix Sinclair, the five-year-old killed by her mother and stepfather after being returned to them from CFS, there was hope that a better future of child welfare in the province would be forthcoming. Her tragic death served as a wake-up call to the public, to leaders and to policy-makers to address problems inherent in the broken system that is continually responsible for my care. Not much seems to have happened.

I am subjected to this system whether I like it or not — it’s all I have.

While the Human Rights Tribunal ruled positively, it has little bearing on the support needed by thousands of youth in care who are aging out. I am going to lose my only network of care, the only individuals and community that have supported me, on my 21st birthday. This despite the fact that I clearly still need the services, as do others in my situation. For us, homelessness and poverty are just a birthday away.

The Phoenix Sinclair inquiry recommended an amendment to outdated legislation, to better reflect modern policy goals regarding extensions of care. The explicit recommendation, repeated by the Office of the Children’s Advocate, the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, Resource Assistance for Youth and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, is to reassess extension policy entirely and look at a holistic service to support youth until age 25.

Extensions are typically granted to help those who are striving to achieve educational outcomes, such as attaining secondary or post-secondary education. This reflects an effort to address the clear gap in supports compared to those not from care.

Only youth in exceptional or unusually cruel circumstances get cut off before the age of 21 while living with their biological parents. Yet, we hold youth in care to a different standard. Also, many live in dozens of placements, eventually leaving care without any sense of independent living skills or employability.

In Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, care has been extended past 21. A cost-benefit analysis in Ontario found that extending the province’s system to age 25 meant savings on money spent in the future because of a reduction in costs for reduced incarceration and homelessness.

Youth in these provinces have much stronger opportunities to better themselves and defeat the cycles of poverty that placed them there in the first place.

It is imperative that there is clear government action on supporting youth from care. However, Family Services Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross and her department show no interest in honouring the wishes of youth from care. The failure to support us only perpetuates the cycle of poverty, and Manitoba needs to act now in the change to 25.

 

Dylan Cohen grew up in care and is now an activist and organizer for 25Not21, working toward better outcomes for other youth. He is currently finishing a conflict resolution degree at the University of Winnipeg and aspires to attend law school.