Listen to thisALBERTA
Making sure the kids are all right
Alberta’s child welfare system has long faced many challenges, not the least of which is a protection process that disqualifies too many families who need help from getting it before crisis sets in.
The province is the legal guardian of about 8,500 Alberta children, and some 12,000 children and youths are accessing government services covered by the office of the Child and Youth Advocate. First Nations and Métis children, youth and families are disproportionately over-represented in a particularly vulnerable segment of our population. Most of the neglect that swells those caseloads stems from poverty, substance abuse, mental health problems and inadequate housing more than it does from actual abuse at the hands of caregivers.
With its new Children First Act, tabled this week in the legislature, the Redford government acknowledges youth in care may be a puzzle of mammoth proportions but it’s one that no caring society can overlook. Bill 25 promises an overhaul of all policies, programs and services that affect at-risk children, including transparency measures that will make it easier for agencies working with children to share information important to the child’s well-being.
Human Services Minister Dave Hancock deserves credit for acknowledging a key fact of life: investing in the early years simply makes good sense. He deserves encouragement, as well, to ensure that this piece of legislation gets us past a comprehensive review of the status quo to tangible improvements.
Eliminating child poverty within five years was one of the Progressive Conservatives’ key planks during the 2012 provincial election. When she ran for the party leadership last year, Alison Redford promised to make Alberta’s child and youth advocate independent and accountable to the legislature. She did that, bringing Alberta in line with every other province, and punctuating the premium her administration is placing on disadvantaged kids.
To which we say, good thinking, and here are two particular problems worthy of additional focused attention.
First, for two years running, Alberta’s child advocate Del Graff has publicly urged the government to do something about the increasing numbers of native children coming into the provincial child welfare system. For two years running, he’s complained that the government has no strategy in place for dealing with the problem, which has grown progressively worse over the last decade. Is there an action plan lying somewhere within the 70 pages of Bill 25?
Second, the advocate and caseworkers think the province should be doing more to help children in care bridge the gap to adulthood when certain benefits expire. Being a ward of the Crown is a tough start in life. Somebody doesn’t magically become an adult when they turn 18. For many of these youths, the government and its agencies are the only parents they have. When they’re cut off, a supportive lifeline is also severed and the statistics tell the rest of the story – they have lower graduation rates than the general population, they get in more legal trouble, and they’re more likely to become homeless.
Increased access to stable housing, supportive adults and counselling services would help, as would greater flexibility in the province’s cut-off dates.
As with most measures targeting youth at risk, you can make the argument that these are the very services that require boosting, even in tough economic times, because spending more now will save money in the long term in reduced social assistance and health and incarceration costs.
But the stronger argument is humanitarian. These are Alberta’s kids and they deserve nothing less than our best.
Editorial
8 May 2013
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/opinion/Editorial+Making+sure+kids+right/8357279/story.html
