Changes needed to cutoff age for Child and Family Services support, Manitoba youth advocacy network says

Every year, hundreds of children in Manitoba age out of the child welfare system, and advocates say too little is being done to offer early transitional support.

Now, some want the age cutoff for kids in care scrapped entirely.

In Manitoba, youth aging out of care are required to live on their own when they turn 18, except in special circumstances.

"Many of those young people we have lost," said Marie Christian, director of Voices: Manitoba's Youth in Care Network.

"I've attended too many funerals for young people who grew up in care and either felt hopeless and decided to take their own life or fell into addictions," she said.

"Let's just get rid of age-based transitions from care. Eighteen is an arbitrary number."

There are about 10,000 children in care in Manitoba, around 90 per cent of whom are Indigenous. The province says 625 kids will age out of the system this year.

Christian wants to see a system that takes into account the relationships youth in care have, the connections they have made, whether they have housing in place and whether they are ready to be on their own when they turn 18.

Some youth in care have their files closed immediately when they turn 18, whether they are prepared for it or not, she said — a system that sets young people up to face unnecessary challenges with everything from paying rent to finishing school or getting a job.

"We also see young people who are put into a position to be exploited," she said. "They're vulnerable because they need a roof over their head. They need food."

Instead of being able to access healthy forms of healing, many end up with addictions as they try to cope with the trauma they have encountered, she said, creating a vicious cycle that is hard to break. 

Roughly half of those kids will continue to receive support through what's called an agreement with a young adult, which provides continued funding to help them become independent — but too little is being down to help the rest, Christian said.

"We are definitely leading them to gaps and expecting them to navigate those gaps on their own."

Dysin Spence was just eight years old when he first encountered the child welfare system. He was apprehended while living on Peguis First Nation and placed in the care of his grandmother. His younger brother was placed with a non-Indigenous family they didn't know, he said.