The Crisis
Every year hundreds of children are being removed from their homes. The reasons are vast and complex and require response at a multiple of levels. Support is needed for birth families, kinship families, foster families, and for the individual children and youth who need a safe place to call home.
25% of kids in Saskatchewan's child welfare system are now placed into professional institutions.
50% of these children are under age 11.
Saskatchewan Child Welfare Statistics, 2023 update
“There are three times more Indigenous children in care today than there were during the height of residential schools”
https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/17131/1/ILJ-6.1-Blackstock.pdf
Children are moving through up to 4 homes in their first year.
“Someone to Watch Over Us.” Special Investigation Report. Saskatchewan Advocate for Children and Youth. March 2021
This is not the environment children need to heal and grow. They are being set up for a painful future.
60% of local sex trafficking victims come from child welfare.
https://www.childwelfare.gov: Human Trafficking and Child Welfare Guide
Children in child welfare have DOUBLE the rate of PTSD as war veterans.
Ai, Amy & Foster, Lovie & Pecora, Peter & Delaney, Nancy & Rodriguez, Wenceslao. (2013). Reshaping Child Welfare’s Response to Trauma. Research on Social Work Practice. 23. 651-668. 10.1177/1049731513491835.
Research shows that having just 1 stable relationship in a child’s life can drastically improve their life outcomes.
70% of men in prisons were raised in child welfare.
DISRUPTING THE PATHWAY FROM FOSTER CARE TO THE JUSTICE SYSTEM—A FORMER PROSECUTOR'S PERSPECTIVES ON REFORM - Krinsky - 2010 - Family Court Review - Wiley Online Library
