This report was published by the Ministry of Children & Youth Services Youth Leaving Care Working Group.

HERE’S HOW THE AUTHORS DESCRIBE THIS REPORT:

In July 2012, the Youth Leaving Care Working Group was established by the Minister of Children & Youth Services in conjunction with the Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children & Youth. Its mandate was to act on the first recommendation of My Real Life Book: Report of the Youth Leaving Care Hearings, which was received by the Provincial Legislature in May 2012. Recommendation 1 states: The province of Ontario should recognize that the current system needs to fundamentally change to better prepare young people in care to succeed. To this end, the province should work with young people in and from care and other stakeholders to complete an Action Plan for Fundamental Change by November 2012.

The Working Group included nine youth in and from care and seven community representatives from across the province. The youth represented a range of places, identities, and experiences from within the child welfare system; all had participated in the hearings and/or related youth processes. The community representatives were from a wide range of youth-serving organizations including children’s aid societies, mentoring organizations and counselling agencies. In addition there were observers from the Ministry of Children & Youth Services, the Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children & Youth, the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies, and the Association of Native Child and Family Services Agencies of Ontario.