Youth aging into the community the focus of the latest child protection committee meeting
November 16, 2020
BY Kevin Zakreski
At the October 2020 meeting of BCLI’s Child Protection Project Committee the committee tackled a new component of the Modernizing the Child, Family and Community Service Act Project. Up to this fall, the committee’s attention had been on its focused review of the act. Now that its 38 tentative recommendations for reform are out for public consultation, the committee has turned its attention to the study of youth aging into the community.
British Columbia largely manages the transition of young adults from being in the care of the child protection system to being on their own in the community through a complicated set of policies and programs. The committee spent the bulk of its meeting considering these policies and programs. This was done with an eye to the approach in other jurisdictions, outside Canada, which have created a legislative framework for youth aging into the community. Research into British Columbia’s policies and programs and select international jurisdictions’ legislation is planned to be published in a study paper next year.
This committee meeting was the last one scheduled for 2020. The next committee meeting is planned for January 2021, when the committee begins to consider responses to its consultation paper and a first draft of its final report.
