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A new child advocacy group is pressuring politicians to redesign the child-protection system to ensure young people succeed as they age out of care.
Jane Kovarikova, a PhD student at Western University who earlier this year published a report critical of the foster-care system, is now turning her efforts into a national non-profit. She’s teamed up with a dozen advocates from across the country, all with lived experience in foster care.
“The most shocking part of my research was that those horrendous outcomes have been consistent for the last 40 years,” said Kovarikova. Findings she presented to the Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth showed that young people out of foster care are struggling with poverty, homelessness, poor mental health, early parenthood, low academic achievement and involvement in criminal activities.
“If in another 40 years we’re still having this conversation about the same outcome, then I’ll have failed,” she said.
The Child Welfare Political Action Committee plans to organize an annual Advocacy Day to bring more attention to the issue and take politicians to task. There will also be campaigns on specific issues such as privacy rights, mental health and more.
Kovarikova, who spent 10 years in foster care and started living on her own at age 16, said the lack of monitoring contributes to the system’s failure. The child-protection system lasts until age 18, though there’s some support in Ontario until age 21. But after that, no one follows up to see how these young people are coping and what measures actually help them, she said.
“The problem is that these systems are always reacting to an issue,” she said. “But if, when they were children, you began to plan for their adult future just like a parent does, then maybe you wouldn’t have foster youth in their adulthood needing extra services.”
