Foster Care and Children Aging Out:
In Canada, child protection is basically a responsibility of the provincial and territorial governments through various activities such as investigating child protection concerns. As part of their responsibilities to promote child protection, the provincial and territorial governments may place children or young under care. This involves placing them in varying living arrangements such as group home, foster home, independent living program, receiving homes, and relatives’ home. Placing children in foster care seems to be the most common way used by various governments in Canada to address child protection concerns. However, this type of care has had significant challenges in the recent past, particularly in light of children or young people who age out of foster care. These challenges are attributed to the lack of legislative and policy initiatives taken to address children who age out of foster care in Canada. As a result of lack of such provisions, these children end up having lack of further education as they are forced into adulthood. In some cases, children who age out of foster care in Canada get involved in criminal activities. As the number of children who age out foster care increases, Canadian government should enact appropriate measures, especially legislation and policy to promote the well-being of these children as they grow into adulthood.
History of Foster Care in Canada:
Provincial and territorial governments in Canada use foster care as part of their child protection initiatives (Rutman, Hubberstey & Feduniw, 2007). The placement of children into such care is usually a by-product of investigations into child protection concerns. These governments place children in fo...
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In conclusion, child protective intervention services through foster care have been the responsibility of provincial and territorial governments in Canada. These governments provide these services to children deemed to be in need of protection temporarily or permanently. However, the country has been faced with several concerns regarding its foster care system because it contributes to increased homelessness, criminal activity, and inability to achieve higher education for children aging out of foster care. These problems are attributed to the lack of legislative provisions and policies in Canada that promote effective transition from foster care to adulthood. Therefore, the Canadian government needs to identify and implement effective transition programs and supports into current policies to improve outcomes for young people aging out of foster care.
Retrieved December 6, 2013, from http://www.fncfcs.com/sites/default/files/online-journal/vol3num1/Sinclair_pp65.pdf Smith, C. (2013, September 1). A Legacy of Canadian Child Care: Surviving the Sixties Scoop. Briarpatch Magazine, Part 1. Retrieved December 6, 2013, from http://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/a-legacy-of-canadian-child-care Steckley, J., & Cummins, B. D. (2008). Full Circle: Canada's First Nations (2nd ed.).
Chronic abuse and neglect is a huge part of the foster care system. According to the Children's Rights website, “Nearly 700,000 abused and neglected children will spend time in foster care in the United States this year.” Many children find themselves being looked after by a social worker, and eventually into the arms of a new family. The authors of Foster Care Placement, Poor Parenting, and Negative Outcomes Among Homeless Young Adults state that “More than half a million American youth currently [are] in foster homes due to child abuse and neglect,” (Tyler, Kimberly A., and Lisa A. Melander). This is a very terrifying statistic. It’s hard to think that there are that many children in foster care, let alone that over half a million are in the system because of child abuse and neglect. Some have even dealt with abuse before, during, and after foster care (787). This leads me to my first point; if foster care is so great, why are children still having to deal with abuse once they’ve been placed in foster care? Why are children like Krystal Scurry being raped and killed by those who are supposed to be offering better living conditions (Ambrose, Jeanne). Why are little children like Joshua Lindsey being beaten to death by their foster parents (1)? Who is re...
...ed in out-of-home care during those years were Aboriginal, yet Aboriginal children made up less than 5% of the total child population in Canada (Brown et al., 2005).” The number of First Nations children from reserves placed in out-of-home care grew rapidly between 1995 and 2001, increasing by 71.5% (Brown et al., 2005). In Manitoba, Aboriginal children made up nearly 80% of children living in out-of-home care in 2000 (Brown et al., 2005). These staggering numbers are the reason why researchers and advocates blame the residential schools as the main historical culprit for today’s phenomenon of the over-representation of Aboriginal children in the child welfare system. The sections below will highlight how residential schools shaped child welfare system in Canada today, which help to explain the over-representation of Aboriginal children in the child welfare system.
Okpych, : Nathanael. "Policy Framework Supporting Youth Aging-out of Foster Care through College."Children Youth Service Review (2012): n. pag. Science Direct. Web.
There is nearly 400,000 children in out-of-home care in the United States right now (Children’s Right). Just about every day children are being shipped in and out of foster homes and group homes. Most people want the best for children in foster care and decide to take care of them until their parents can possibly recover. The foster care system can have both a negative or positive effect on children, foster parents, and biological parents because of the gaps in the system. Foster cannot not be avoided but the some aspects of the foster care system can be avoided if the missing gaps were filled.
Suzanna Berne’s article “Where Nothing Says Everything” discusses the sequence of events that Berne encounters as she attempts to pay her respects to the 9/11 tragedy. From the elements within her writing, Berne demonstrates the significant meaning of the World Trade Center’s absence. It is from her personal experience and play on words that she is able to accurately express her thesis. Within her piece, Suzanna Berne comes to the conclusion that the impact of 9/11 on the American people forces them to unite in order to overcome the loss of the World Trade Center along with the people who went down with it.
The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) was as a response to growing concerns about “foster care drift”; that is, children experiencing multiple, unstable foster care placements over extended periods, children virtually lost within the child welfare system (Rockhill, 2007). The ASFA has become a very important and much needed policy that helped with placement and safet...
For many teenagers, their 18th birthday is an exciting time in their lives. They are finally becoming a legal adult, and are free from the rules and restrictions created under their parents. But not all teens feel the same joy about this coming of age. For the hundreds of thousands of children living in foster care in the United States, this new found freedom brings anxiety and fear. Where will they live after turning 18? How will they get the medications they may need? How will they find a job with little to no experience? How will they put themselves through school? Aging out of foster care is a serious issue among America’s youth. Every year, 20,000 children will age out with nowhere to go, being expected to be able to survive on their own (Reilly 728). Young adults face various obstacles upon aging out of foster care, such as multiple health problems/issues, homelessness, and finding/maintaining a job.
Foster care needs to be reformed, especially when it comes to private agencies. Many people seem to overlook the issues embedded within the foster care system; all it does is take care of children, right? Wrong. Private agencies pervert the system with the nightmares they create. Foster children already feel unwanted and neglected because of the abandonment from their birth parents; private agencies provide them with conditions that further solidify their disbelief of care and love. Money comes first in the eyes of these agencies, followed by the need of control. This “control” can easily become abuse. It would only be sensible for a higher authority to intervene and put an end to these profound
As of 2014, there were over 415,000 children in the foster care system. Foster care is the raising and supervision of children in a private home, group home, or institution, by individuals engaged and paid by a social service agency (Legal Dictionary, 2016). Care givers can be of kin relationship to the child, or may not know the child at all. Group homes are run by a social worker and can house multiple children at a time. These homes are usually regulated by the state and/or government. Children of all ages go through many emotions when their lives revolve in foster care. This paper will discuss the emotions children deal with regarding separation from birth family, the effects of abuse, and the possibility of having to transition out of
The Provincial Advocate For Children And Youth. Feathers of Hope. Compiled by The Provincial Advocate For Children And Youth. Toronto: n.p., 2014. Accessed May 21, 2014. http://digital.provincialadvocate.on.ca/i/259048.
“About two-thirds of children admitted to public care have experienced abuse and neglect, and many have potentially been exposed to domestic violence, parental mental illness and substance abuse” (Dregan and Gulliford). These children are being placed into foster care so that they can get away from home abuse, not so they can move closer towards it. The foster children’s varied outcomes of what their adult lives are is because of the different experiences they grew up with in their foster homes. The one-third of those other foster children usually has a better outcome in adult life than the other two-thirds, which is a big problem considering the high percentage of children being abused in their foster homes. Although, the foster care system has most definitely allowed children to experience the positive home atmosphere that they need there is still an existed kind of abusive system in the foster care program that is unofficial but seems to be very popular. Foster care focuses on helping children in need of a temporary stable environment; however, foster care can have negative impacts to the children and the people around them concerning the foster child going through the transition, the parents of the foster child, a new sibling relationship, and problems that arrive later influencing the foster child long-term.
Child abuse and neglect are “social” issues that were addressed by the author. While children are in foster care, they may become victims of maltreatment: child neglect, child emotional, physical and sexual abuse. The terms neglect refers to when parents fail to provide a child’s basic needs and provide satisfactory level of care (Downs, Moore and McFadden, 2009). An example of a child being neglected is when parents or c...
Though foster care was originally established to help children who were orphaned, abandoned, neglected or abused, it has also caused problems for children. Agencies often have difficulty providing adequate, accessible, and appropriate services for the families in their care. (Chipungu and Goodley, pp. 76, 2004) This paper will examine the negative impact of foster care on children as a social problem and how it is viewed and understood. Also this paper would point out the key figures and groups that are affected by problem. This paper would analyze past attempts to better the foster care system and current policies that exist to face this problem. Throughout this paper the goals and objectives of the current polices would be addressed.
In an article written by Bolg.acton.org titled as Our Foster Care System Is Becoming A ‘Pipeline’ For Human, half of a million of children in the U.S are put into foster care for a short period of time or for a long time due to crisis happening in their houses. Some of those children are placed with their relatives if they are ‘lucky’ enough. However, in the same article, in an interview with Malika Saada of Rights4Girls by NPR, she stated various issues occurring in the broken foster care system. As for what is happening with the children that are put into various houses in which at times are being abused without the knowledge of the state. In other cases, circumstances are different and unfortunate as for those who are seeing as profit. As for the story of one of the survivor leader whom they work with who was trafficked from the age of 10-17-all through California, Nevada, and Washington states-seeing foster care as training ground to being trafficked. However, even though she knew that the foster parents were getting pay to take care of her, all she cared about was that the pimp told her that he loved her. The lack of love, affirmation and protection are the reasons Malika thinks children pledge to follow their commands. In other cases, the children are told that the checks given by the government is not enough, that the only thing that made them worth was the money they would bring in. Malika also states that 60 percent of the children rescued in a recent FBI sting were from foster care at a point. Child maltreatment is being reported by the FBI throughout all the 50 states as stated by the