There is good news for foster children.
Recently, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption conducted a survey, which found that among Canadians who are looking to adopt for the first time more than half are considering adopting from foster care, with more than two thirds of that group seriously considering foster care adoption.
This is good news for the children in our foster care system.
Growing up in a foster care family is not necessarily a bad thing, but those children need stability, which is something typically the foster care system is unable to provide.
I used to have a friend whose parents fostered children and the children in their homes used to be moved around quite frequently.
This is not a situation children should have to grow up in.
According to Statistics Canada numbers from the 2016 census there are 42,050 children in foster care in Canada under the age of 20, with 2,630 of those coming from Saskatchewan.
A perfect example of the kind of mismanagement being shown to foster children across the country comes from our own province in a 2014 report done by Saskatchewan Advocate a Voice for Children and Youth.
“Jake’s Story” outlines the tale of a young child who was taken into foster care at five months old, following a domestic dispute that saw his alleged alcohol-abusing mother hospitalized after she was injured by his father, who was taken into custody.
Over the next ten months, Jake, whose real name could not be used in the report, and his brother were moved 11 times.
Finally, Jake was placed in an emergency level foster home, where it had the capacity for ten emergency placements, and two special needs placements.
This home exceeded the maximum number of placements, both in a foster home (four), or a group home (ten).
Jake remained at this home for nine months, until a few days short of his second birthday, when he died.
Jake appeared to be physically healthy the day prior to his death, and his orthopedic specialist noted his previously broken femur was healing properly.
Upon a coroners review it was found that Jake had died before midnight the evening prior to being found, but his cause of death could not be determined.
Imagine being less than two years old, living in more than a dozen houses, breaking your leg, and then dying.
That does not seem like a very nice life to me.
And Jake is not the only person who did not have a positive experience in foster care.
According to a CBC report from 2016, the province of British Columbia saw 233 cases of sexualized violence against children in the care of the province, reported over a five-year period.
I could not even begin to imagine the kind of lives these kids have been forced to live.
Not only does this provide trauma in the short term, but this kind of trauma, either, physically, mentally, or emotionally, does not just stay with children when they are young but this is something they must carry with them their whole lives.
This needs to change.
I am not saying it has not already improved, but it is something that needs to continue to improve.
When sent to a foster home, these children should be moving into a home like that of their own.
I realize getting to that point may take a while, and some of the problem is over population in these foster homes, but that’s where the news about adoption comes in.
Knowing that there are people out there who are considering adoption is good for two reasons; one, it helps provide a child with a forever home, and two, it helps lighten the load placed upon foster homes.
This is great news for foster children.
