Login / RegisterChanges could help fix B.C.'s foster care system
On a porch a few blocks from Playland, a tidy shelf holds dozens of pairs of kids’ shoes. There are Crocs and sandals and sneakers. All of them belong to Cory Robinson’s gaggle of kids, two biological and three foster, whom he parents with his long-time girlfriend. Twice a week there are more shoes, when another three former foster kids come for dinner. His goal is to make sure all eight of them—plus the teens he mentors through his outreach job at the Eastside Aboriginal Space for Youth—know who they are, like who they are, and turn 19 ready for financial and emotional independence.
In his late 20s, Robinson is shouldering a load of fatherhood most men never take on. For him—having lived in 24 foster and group homes since babyhood—this is his chance to give a new generation what he missed out on: stability and support.
“It’s weird that they look up to me,” he flatly told the Georgia Straight in an interview in his living room. “Obviously, they [the Ministry of Children and Family Development] didn’t do a very good job when it came to me. That’s what you get when you show someone you don’t care about them. I’m 27, and I’m still trying to find my voice. So we end up learning together on that one.”
Robinson is on the frontlines trying to fix a system that his experience tells him is broken. He’s not the only one trying to overhaul child protection—the arm of the provincial Ministry of Children and Family Development responsible for investigating child abuse and safety concerns, and sometimes moving children to foster care or other care arrangements. Since 2007, between 8,300 and 9,300 children and youths have been in the care of the government at any given time—about one percent of the total underage population (and about six percent of aboriginal kids and teens). Some are permanent wards of the province; others stay in care for under a week.
After 11 years in office and with less than a year to go before the next election, the Liberal government is hammering through two major changes that may address some of the most serious criticisms of the system.
First, it’s widely acknowledged that when youths turn 19 and “age out” of the system, many crumble under the weight of immediate, adult responsibilities. For example, about half of teens who leave the system apply for social assistance within six months of turning 19.
Soon, the B.C. Representative for Children and Youth, feisty former judge Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, will likely take on a new role. If the legislature passes some proposed amendments to the Representative for Children and Youth Act, she’ll also advocate for young adults aged 19 to 24 who are transitioning out of care—potentially strengthening one of the weakest parts of the system. In addition, deputy MCFD minister Stephen Brown spent part of the winter speaking with young adults formerly in care, gathering information to improve the effectiveness of services for teens who age out of the system.
Second, the 2012–15 MCFD strategic plan, which was presented on February 21 as part of the budget, includes giving struggling families more resources to help them keep their kids rather than apprehending them, and keeping more apprehended kids with their extended families and in their communities. Turpel-Lafond has praised the direction the ministry is taking. (Neither a ministry spokesperson nor Turpel-Lafond agreed to the Straight’s request for an interview.)
These aren’t the first high-level changes the Liberals have made since taking office. A shortlist includes appointing six different ministers; addressing the 62 recommendations in the 2006 B.C. Children and Youth Review (the “Hughes review”); opening the independent office of the Representative for Children and Youth; changing postmajority (age 19-plus) services; changing the process for allocating and increasing the amount of funding for postsecondary education; and now the massive Residential Review Project (Phase 1 yielded a 153-page report), which aims to “improve the experience and outcomes” for young people placed in foster care.
Yet outcomes for kids in care are generally still awful. In 2010-11, just 40 percent of teens who were wards of the province graduated from high school within six years of starting Grade 8, according to the MCFD’s 2012 performance-measures report (compared with about 80 percent of the general population). The last time a ward of B.C. wrote his or her Grade 12 math provincial exam was 2007.
In addition, between June 1, 2007, and January 31, 2012, 423 infants, children, and teens died while receiving care from the MCFD, and 893 more were critically injured, according to reports by Turpel-Lafond.
Plus, with horror stories arising frequently in the media—from the infamous Sherry Charlie debacle to the mistaken apprehension of four children from their family home and the parents’ four-year legal fight to get them back—the optics are terrible.
With a provincial election looming, foster care’s outcomes are the answer to the question, how well does B.C. care for its most vulnerable residents? The question is even more compelling as Premier Christy Clark is a parent herself and a former minister with the MCFD.
Even with the MCFD’s new collaborative relationship with Turpel-Lafond and her blessing of the new directions the ministry is going in, there’s likely not enough time between now and the next election (May 14, 2013, at the latest) to tell whether they’re working.
So while we’re waiting for the more detailed ministry plan to be released later this year, the Straight asked several frontline workers this question: what is one change the MCFD could make that would be guaranteed to improve outcomes before the next election?
More needs to be done to ensure the homes are suitable for foster children & there needs to be follow up & counselling services.
What is actually needed is a lot more funding which will provide for sufficient social workers to do their jobs & get rid of a lot of the dead wood. Social workers carry huge work loads & everybody looses, the clients, the social workers burning out, society.
Children who "age out", need to be provided continued support. If they & the foster parents want to stay together then social services should continue to provide financial assistance. Most kids today stay home as long as they can so they can get an education or earn enough money to get established. Many children in foster care have mental health issues. Kicking them into the street does no one any good & cost more than dealing with the issue.
There needs to be better support for families in crisis. There needs to be more social workers. The lieberals have been taking heat for a number of issues but I doubt very much if anything real will happen. One, the actually don't care, they are just responding to public pressure so its time for a news release. Two, there isn't enough money left in the province to deal with the issues. The lieberals spent it on P3 projects, the Os, lowering corporate taxes, running Hydro & B.C. Ferries into the ground, giving away B.C. Rail, etc. Now with the impending sale of BCLCB, there goes the last profit making agency the government had left. They could keep it & use the profits to fund these programs for children in care.
We look to the NDP to also focus on preventative care and real tools that will support all families, especially those that are struggling.
In the long term it will mean our tax dollars are well spent and we have healthier communities - in all of our best interests.
Some foster parents just do it for the money, or because their phychos.....
Children are forceably removed from thier parents because of child protection concerns based on heresay evidence. The child is placed in an un sanitary dirty foster with strangers it is in THE CHILD'S BEST INTEREST for any child is seperated from thier friends school community and family, and for some children Like Ayn Derek Hoares daughter, are drugged and put in prision like instatutions. Children are abused and neglected are even dying in foster homes and Cristy Clark just lets them keep dying! When children are removed from thier parents somtimes you have to wait up to four months to see your child and you see them in a prison like setting some times office and your not allowed to see your child more than 2 hours 1 day per week. IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILD.
A child in mcfd care doesnt get christmas with thier family and doesnt get properly fed or clothed. If you are a parent who has thier child in care you cant get medical information about your child or you cant take a picture or vidieo of your child during a visit or check for bruises or neglect. If you ask why your child showed up with bruises from the foster home a parent is silienced or you may never see your child again. Since child protection concerns werent founded and the child dragged through hell and all the senseless trama and abuse that child is dead because IT WAS IN THE CHILD'S BEST INTEREST! THE TRUTH why that child died was't because the child was at risk in thier parent's care it is because of abusive social workers who are just ignorant there is nothing that would ever exsuse the Ministry for children families of thier actions specifically causing undue harm to thousands of vunerable children or make up the fact they are child abuses and it is time some one says some thing about the truth of foster care and the Ministry for children and families shame on Cristy Clark I am so dam angry the Ministry for children and families are child abusers and the government just keeps covering it up that is wrong and if one more person says foster homes do good things just read between the lines enough is enough no more silience give our children back get them out of the foster care system which should be shut down! I am angry so many children abused by the child protection system!