Creating Roots - Supporting Former Foster Youth
By Charlene April, Founder of Creating Roots
When I was a little girl, I began to clue in that life in other homes was quite a different experience than it was in mine. I had already been in foster care a couple of times and experienced dropping my baby sister off at her adopted parents place, never to see her again. For the next decade, my single mother struggled to keep me from the child welfare system, and I was always so mad that no one ever took me away too. At 14, I finally used my voice, stayed and graduated from foster care when I was sixteen. I worked and graduated with honours with a Child & Youth Worker diploma, had two kids, achieved my Real Estate license and worked for my Financial Services license. I knew I wanted to dedicate my life to helping others like me, to obtain permanent homes and financial security. I merged my expertise with my passion and Creating Roots has been evolving ever since. Our board of directors include my greatest fans, my social worker, foster mother and foster sister.
Every year, 800-1000 young people are graduated out of the Ontario system and foster families are no longer given support to keep them in their homes. Youth themselves are given very little assistance and the programs and services available, sadly, are just overwhelmed and not enough. The government has announced that no youth will age out of care until the pandemic is over and when that happens there will be an unprecedented number of youth that will need housing, financial, career and self supports to do more than just survive and not end up on the street.
Creating Roots will help Ontario former foster youth up to the age of 29 with rent, financial, career and housing supports alongside 90 days of life coaching and 24/7 mentorship support.
To start, our youth will be linked with a realtor who will assist in securing a safe and affordable place to live. Our main program, Rent for Roots will provide one month of rent to any participants whether they are moving or not. Participants must take our Financial/Career Roots program in order to receive the rent funds. Financial roots and education are not currently regulated for youth leaving care. As a result, many feel financially illiterate, always scraping by. We have collaborated with Masters Money Management to provide our youth with crucial financial literacy fundamental in their core education. Our Career Roots program highlights a person’s strengths and takes a magnifying glass to who they are as a person and where they fit in. Although not mandatory, we have made 90 days of life coaching with 24/7 mentorship support by teaming up with the non-profit YouSeeYou; available for all former youth in care to take advantage of after completing our Roots programs.
Between my lived experience, the make-up of our board of directors and the collective programs of Creating Roots, youth leaving foster care will be given a massive web of education and support to keep them off the streets and projected into the lives they always dreamed they would be able to make for themselves. We are currently 100% donation funded and are working hard to secure a permanent place in the history of child welfare in Ontario.
I am a college graduate, mother, realtor and financial advisor. I am also an orphan and a foster kid.
You are worthy, you are lovable, and you are enough.
To learn more about Creating Roots, visit www.creatingrootscanada.ca
References
Youth homelessness linked to foster care system in new study; https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/homeless-youth-foster-care-1.4240121
Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services; Youth Leaving Care: http://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/childrensaid/leavingcare.aspx
Homebase Fund; The Children’s Aid Foundation: https://www.cafdn.org/thebuzz/homebasefund
Financial Education: A Key Factor in Economic Well-Being; Federation of Canadian Secondary Students; pg 14
Life after foster care, Macleans; https://www.macleans.ca/society/life-after-foster-care-in-canada/
Alone at 19: What happens to youth who are aged out of Canada's foster care system?: W5 Interview; https://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/alone-at-19-what-happens-to-youth-who-are-aged-out-of-canada-s-foster-care-system-1.4840750
Ontario allows youth to remain in care after passing cut-off age during pandemic; National Post; https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/ontario-allows-youth-to-remain-in-care-after-passing-cut-off-age-during-pandemic
Developmental Services Ontario https://www.dsontario.ca/transition-planning
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