Support urged for at-risk youths
Advocate sees gap as kids get too old for care
Alberta needs to do more to support kids when they are too old for government care, states a new report from Alberta’s child and youth advocate.
Del Graff said some vulnerable young people are ill-prepared for when their government supports are phased out at 18 years old.
“We’re saying to government, ‘We think that you could do a better job of helping to support these young people,’” Graff, an independent officer of the legislature, said Wednesday.
“Transitions to adulthood are hard for anybody. But when you’ve spent your entire life in the care of government, often there are barriers that the rest of us never had to face.”
In the latest attempt to address a long-standing problem, researchers interviewed more than 140 young people who had been in care or were leaving government support, along with 75 professionals.
Three major themes were highlighted in the resulting 34-page report: the need for better access to programs and supports, stronger con- nections to supportive adults and increased resources.
Youth pointed to solutions for these issues during a series of focus groups, Graff said.
For instance, many — who often came from abusive backgrounds — called for additional mental-health supports.
Other focus group participants suggested they would benefit from having access to a peer-support group to combat “a prevailing sense of shared loneliness.”
Citing the success of an Edmonton-based program, the report notes “mentorship program staff identified that of the young people who age out of their program, many offer to come back and mentor the new program members.”
And many others asked for more opportunities for life-skills training in areas such as money management, household chores, cooking and nutrition, sexual health and post-secondary education.
The office of the child and youth advocate plans to hold a symposium to figure out how to put recommendations from the report into action.
An estimated 12,000 children and youths receiving government services are covered by the advocate’s office, about 8,500 of which are in provincial care.
The advocate’s office has identified transitioning young people out of government care as an issue in eight of its annual reports.
“We have an obligation to ensure these children are looked after,” said Mark Cherrington, a veteran Edmonton youth worker. “And, in my opinion, we’re not doing that.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years and, to be frank, you could’ve had this conversation with me in 1993,” Cherrington said. “Nothing’s changed — except the new promises.
“Nothing is going to change without resources and a commitment by this province and this government to start funding this system,” he added.
Alberta Human Services did not return a request for comment late Wednesday.
However, Cherrington expressed hope that a greater understanding of the issue will lead to systematic improvements.
“The awareness aspect has gone up,” he said.
“People are saying ‘we’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore.’
“Why are children living on street corners?”