Province increases aid to Covenant House
Extra funding announced a day after damning report on overburdened social workers
The provincial government has announced an additional $250,000 in funding for residential crisis help for at-risk young women living at Vancouver’s Covenant House.
The announcement, made Friday by B.C. MLA for Vancouver-False Creek Sam Sullivan at Covenant House on West Pender Street, comes one day after a damning report from B. C.’ s children’s watchdog that found child-protection workers are so overburdened that children are left at risk.
The funding is in addition to the $315,000 the Ministry of Children and Family Development provided in May to Covenant House, said Sullivan, who was speaking on behalf of Health Minister Terry Lake.
“Covenant House provides much-needed sanctuary to Vancouver’s youth, and I’m proud to be involved in a caring society with a government that supports their efforts,” he said.
Sullivan said the money will go toward developing programs for young women such as addiction counselling services, access to mental health clinicians, and housing and social service referrals.
He said the timing of the funding announcement was not in response to the criticism this week about understaffing in B.C’s child protection services.
“This decision was made quite a while ago,” he said. “But I think there is a recent awareness the media has helped highlight that we need to do more.”
On Thursday, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, the representative for children and youth, released a report that said some B.C. child welfare offices are perilously understaffed, leading to a consistent failure to meet the provincial government’s own timelines and rules for child protection.
She urged the minister to spend $20 million more annually to hire 250 more staff, 200 of them social workers.
That same day, Minister for Children and Family Development Stephanie Cadieux said the ministry had established a rapid response team in the Downtown Eastside to help the ten highestrisk kids.
Rae Anne Lebrun, an 18-yearold resident of Covenant House, said she is worried about aging out of the system next year, but said unlike some of her peers who have committed suicide or died from drug overdoes, she is receiving the kind of support she believes will help her cope when she is no longer under the care of the ministry.
When she heard about Carly Fraser, who committed suicide 20 hours after aging out of the foster care system, she said she felt uneasy and sad.
“I could feel the same feelings she is feeling,” said Lebrun, who attended the government’s announcement on Friday. “But with that feeling, and that knowledge that she didn’t have the support I have at Covenant House. She didn’t have those chances to meet people, and to be able to say ‘ Hey, I need help. This is how I’m feeling. Can you help me, I’m vulnerable.’ And being vulnerable is one of the scariest things. It’s a fear that controls us.”
She said while the extra funding is “a good start,” she believes much more is needed to protect at-risk youth.
This decision was made quite a while ago, but I think there is a recent awareness the media has helped highlight that we need to do more.
SAM SULLIVAN
B.C. MLA