Fixing foster care, from a former crown ward | CBC Docs POV 

I was a Crown ward Simcoe Country Children's Aid Society as well. I was thrown out to independent living when I was 16 after the group home agency I was placed with was shut down by the child advocate. It was a rough go. Then 3 months after I was taken off as I didn't have any stable housing and my worker didn't want to give me money for nothing. I went for the next year broke, high and broken inside. (As when your on the independent living program you cannot receive Ontario Works even if Independent Living isn't actively paying you out). When found an apartment of my own to get myself off the streets I begged and pleaded to my worker to help me with first and last. He said no independent living doesn't help with that. It only pays $663/month and that's it if I wanted help with that I would have to switch over to Ontario Works. So after 15 months of being on the program I think I only got paid out 6 maybe 7 months. The entire system is a sham CAS should be ashamed of themselves and they need to quit hiring fresh social workers straight out of university. I have made my life better I have gone to university and college and got to see all of Canada. Doesn't mean I didn't come out unscathed I was super codependant on everything and everyone (drugs people and drama). I have almost unintentionally overdosed twice in my lifetime I have had multiple suicide attempts, chronicly homeless (still a recurring problem even now that I'm clean and sober). The system is screwed I feel she unstated the amount of PTSD in former crown wards. I think the rate of PTSD is 80-90%. When I left I stayed in contact with about 10 of the other kids that were in the group home with me it's been 18 years since I left the group home and out of those 10 only 1 is left 9 of them have passed away to overdoses or suicide. Something needs to change as this system doesn't help kids it ruins them

I was a child of the crown from the age of 6. I was also told, by my social worker, that my dad didn't want me but it was a lie, they never contacted him. Soon after I was introduced to solitary confinement and between the age of 6 and 12 I was moved 56 times. On my 18th birthday, I was asked to be gone by 11am. I asked where I should go and was laughed at. I was expected to die in jail or the street. At 20 I went to college. But in 2009 I finally understood why I struggled to be successful. I've since been trying to heal from the trauma I suffered and trying to learn how to manage my CPTSDD (complex post traumatic stress disorder with dissociation). Thanks for spreading the word about this tragedy.

When I was a youth in foster care I was taken from my home when I was 10 - 11 years old. My mother told Children's Aid that she could not manage me and would hurt herself. So they came for me one early morning. I remember the worker and 2 police officers taking me from my room, putting me into a car and driving me to a house. I was scared, I didn't know where my mother was or what was happening. The foster parents quickly explained to me where I could go in the house and what chores I would be doing. The only place I was allowed in the house was the basement and I would have to ask before and get approval to go upstairs. They had 2 other foster children plus 2 older children of their own. I was alone in the basement my first day and didn't eat any lunch. I was sick to my stomach. School ended and I met the 2 other foster children and the foster parents older children. I quickly learned that the foster kids did everything in the house whereas their own kids did not help. I stayed there for 3 days and ran away. I ran further than I have even ran. I ran to the only home and ever known. I slept in the hallway in front of the door of my mother's apartment. This is the first time I felt that no one loved me. My mother found me in the morning on the cold floor, took me inside. The worker came again, but this time without police. I was taken to a group home as the worker thought that that was in my best interest and some years later I was taken to a foster home where the foster parents would show me love but then that was ripped from me and I was sent back to my mother. I made many mistakes in my youth and often felt that no one loved me. I felt many times during that time, that if I should die, no one would care. There was no support system for a youth like me, specifically a black youth.

How dare the Children's Aid say she's one of their success stories. She's her own success story. You have nothing to do with it.

I am a former foster kid from Ontario and when I aged out of care I was put on the Extended Care Maintenance program (ECM). ECM offered $850/month exclusively to former foster kids on the requirement that they enroll full time in school, prove attendance, and maintain a certain GPA (above 75% if I remember correctly). The ECM program was poorly executed in my opinion. Social workers told me flat out that the reason this program was implemented was because foster kids have a high rate of homelessness after they exit care. So we were urged to go to college and quickly get a degree before we were cut off from ECM at age 21. I remember being rushed to apply for college by my social worker who anxiously told me that I would be homeless if I didn't get a degree. I was expected to choose a college degree within 20 minutes because my social worker had another appointment to get to. There was no college prep for us foster kids when we were in high school. Many of us fall behind academically in high school because of the chaos in being moved frequently. My first foster home was shut down due to abuse and I was moved in the middle of the school year. Jane's research says that foster kids lose between 4-6 months of academic progress every time they are moved. I fell behind semester and eventually I caught up and graduated high school (while I aged out of care at the same time) and then I was hurried into college - which I was not prepared for at all. I did not have a 4 year plan. I did not have social workers or guidance counsellors helping me plan out my college career, in fact college was not even mentioned to me until I aged out and was shuffled onto ECM. So when I was expected to make a life changing decision about my college program in 20 minutes I realized I could not get into most programs due to a lack of prerequisite courses (which ECM would not allow me to take because it did not consider academic upgrading to be "real school"). For this reason, many of us former foster kids were enrolled in programs that didn't require many prerequisites, such as art degrees which had no promising careers. So imagine being enrolled in an art program where your tuition is $9000 but you only receive a grant of $1300 and the monthly allowance of $850 (to pay your rent, groceries, bus pass). I didn't feel comfortable in the art program because my social worker told us that basically we were going to be homeless unless we got a degree that would allow us to enter a promising career. So I got massive anxiety about being in my art program and requested a transfer to something more sensible. In doing so, I violated ECM terms and I was kicked off ECM and no longer received the $850/month which forced me to drop out of school and landed me thousands of dollars in debt. I was unable to pay back my student loans which caused great harm to my credit score. I was unable to take out another student loan to return to school and I was unable to collect my tax returns for ten years. I was often in vulnerable financial circumstances where I faced homelessness numerous times. And there was nobody to help. We are cut off from our social workers so nobody even informs us if there are new programs aimed at helping aged out foster kids (like the Telus mobility plan that gives former foster kids free cell phone services up to age 26) or an age increase that was added to ECM or a tuition waiver for former foster kids. We are often completely in the dark about these opportunities. It's such a joke. Even with the tuition waivers now available to former foster kids, some of us are still unable to accept them (I ended up moving to Alberta because the economy was better here) and none of the schools that offer the tuition waiver for former foster kids are in Alberta. It's absolutely sickening how little support we get. Nobody even helps teach us how to drive. And the biggest slap in the face is that they keep offering better programs to the recently aged out - so newly aged out former foster kids DO get to access programs that teach them how to drive or other important life skills + financial aid for college but then the rest of us over a certain age are left to fend for ourselves and the mountain of debt ECM gave us. Then the government completely ignores us. It's pathetic

I was a kid who had real parents that really wanted me. Heavy handed methods were used in court (knowing full well my parent's crappy legal aid lawyer couldn't deliver) to steal me away from my parents. From the time I was abducted at age 6 to the time I was released back to my parents at age 17 it was a very traumatizing period. At age 43 I still suffer from the trauma without a dollar in the bank. Anger and sadness has existed my whole life. This is the damage done by over zealous Toronto CCAS workers. I grow sick and tired of hearing about how generous these child thieving agencies are. The group homes alone with the bullying and restraints are traumatizing as it is. There are more stories like mine out there.

Great doc, really inspiring women

I was a kid that was raised in a time when the child tax credit was only $20 or $30. I tend to think the ravenous CAS would not have had their chance to sink their fangs in and corrupt and mess up my life if families had access to the kind of money government throws at the poor now.

In some States, they place the children in a boarding school instead of the foster homes!

Congrats to her really bet the odds real success story such beautiful women

Are these the people behind journey to zero?

Wonderful strides made and I hope the positivity continues, but with the likes of Premier Doug Ford currently at the helm of Ontario, I can't help but feel some pessimism these strides could be short-lived or blocked entirely from further advancements forward.

I cannot help that I was made, or who by. I certainly cannot help what I was made into. B'Nai Brith ought to answer for thier program operated out of West Hamiltons Chedoke Hospital. This is the place that almost killed me. We are talking about a disgusting amount of negligence resulting in abduction, drug overdose, sexual abuse, and copious amounts of self mutilation and state sponsored medications. Who let the government loose on families back then? What was the plan with us? Everyone accepts mental illness, as long as you dont act mentally ill.

stop removing kids from good parents

They show this woman for what so they show 1% out of many why don't they show the truth on how these kids turn up and how they go for life instead of the 1% Problem with that is people probably don't want to see the truth

im former crown ward and thanks for making this video can you contact bme and enrich my life with your wisdom im so lost hasnt been easy i dont even know my dads name and finding my mom wasnt what i thought it was gonna be

I want to be a foster pet. Any hot 🥵 educated guy interested to adopt me? 😔🐭I need petting. 😢💕