FOSTERING THE CAREGIVERS
Extended funding for foster families means kids can stay in care longer
In what is being hailed as a breakthrough for some of Ontario’s most vulnerable youth, high school students in foster care will no longer be forced to move out when they turn 18.
Under the provincial policy change, announced by Children and Youth Services Minister Tracy MacCharles Tuesday, funding to foster families will continue until former Crown wards turn 21, as long as the youths are in high school.
Up to 3,400 youth between the ages of18 and 21 could be eligible for the extra sup- port, according to ministry officials.
The change, part of a series of initiatives that also includes increased adoption support for older youth, is aimed at improving the lives of Ontario’s 6,400 Crown wards as they transition into adulthood.
“This is amazing news. I feel like the adults are finally listening,” said former Toronto foster child Rosimay Venancio, 25, who fell into depression and eventually became homeless after she was forced to leave a loving foster home at 18.
Venancio recently won an award from the Queen for designing a mentorship program that links teens in foster care with young adults who grew up in the system.
“This will make such a huge difference in terms of security,” Venancio said. “Now they can focus on getting good grades and not on budgeting for rent and buying groceries.”
Venancio hopes the change will help 19-year-old Vivian Petruno, a struggling high school student she is mentoring who was forced to leave her foster home last year.
Just 46 per cent of Ontario children in foster care and group homes complete high school compared with
“We cannot abandon children who will grow up in care.” IRWIN ELMAN ONTARIO’S ADVOCATE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH
about 84 per cent of their peers with permanent families. As adults, former Crown wards are more likely to experience poverty and homelessness, suffer mental health problems and become involved with the criminal justice system.
Allowing teens to stay in foster care beyond age 18 was one of the key recommendations of a 2012 report by current and former youth in the care of children’s aid who staged the first legislative hearings on their plight in the fall of 2011.
Ontario Advocate for Children and Youth Irwin Elman welcomed the provincial announcement as a positive first step. “We cannot abandon children who will grow up in care. We can and must do better in helping them find permanency as well.”
To ensure more Crown wards find permanent families, the province will spend $4.95 million over three years to support 15 adoption recruiters through Wendy’s Wonderful Kids, an adoption program run through the Dave Thomas Foundation.
Under the program, children and youth are 1.7 times more likely to be adopted and those with mental health issues are three times more likely to find a permanent family, government officials said.
The province is also expanding support to adoptive parents by increasing adoption subsidies, first introduced in 2012, and updating the family income threshold.
Annual subsidies will increase to $12,400 from $11,400 per child while the income threshold will rise to $93,700 from $85,000, to reflect the average 2011 after-tax income for a two-parent family with children.
Subsidies available for sibling groups and children between the ages of 10 and 18 will now be available for kids as young as 8 and up to age 21.
“We want children in care to benefit from a forever family, with all the opportunities young people need and deserve to achieve success,” Minister MacCharles said in a statement.
Last year, children’s aid societies provided subsidies for 787 children who were adopted and 80 in legal custody arrangements.
Children’s aid societies have been lobbying the government to extend foster care support and adoption subsidies to age 21 for many years, said Mary Ballantyne of the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies, which represents the province’s 47 societies.
“This is a fantastic announcement that will really help support more young people to finish school and find a permanent placement with an adoptive family,” she said.