National Post: This is Adopt4Life's response to MCYS's Mandate
Lori Niles: Want to adopt a child in Ontario? Good luck with the paperwork
"DEAR MINISTER MACCHARLES:
Adopt4Life would like to thank you for sharing your mandate letter outlining the key priorities the Premier has charged you with. We respect and appreciate the transparency your government has provided".
At Adopt4Life we believe that every child deserves a family and that no child is unadoptable. The ultimate goal of permanency for all children in care, be it returning to family of origin, kinship adoption, or adoption outside their biological family, helps ensure these children have the best possible outcome in life for their circumstances. Access to the right supports and opportunities to make positive choices, reach their full potential and seamlessly transition to adulthood is best achieved when these children have permanent families and those families have timely and adequate support.
We are pleased to see many areas of priority set out by the Premiere that will mean positive changes for children needing permanent families and for supporting children already in their forever families. Our awaiting families are eager to see a transformation to the Child Welfare System, ensuring permanency for all children in care which has proven to make a difference in their reaching their full potential and transitioning into adulthood successfully and confidently. Many children in the system or that have been adopted are at-risk youth, have mental health issues, and/or complex and special needs due to their histories of trauma. With support more readily available for at-risk youth, mental health services and complex and special needs, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), adoptive families will be better able to help their children. We anticipate this will result in more Ontarians considering adoption as a way to create their families, increasing the number of children and youth that find their forever family.
As adoptive parents we look forward to building a strong partnership with your ministry in advancing the interests of kids across Ontario by helping you to deliver on the priorities identified, specifically for those children in care or adopted into permanent families.
Respectfully yours",
---Adopt4Life
"Thanks to The Star and Martin Regg Cohn - Adopt4Life (Ontario’s Adoptive Parent’s Association) is excited to see that much light has been shed on such a challenging topic for our Adopt Ready parents and ultimately for our awaiting children stuck into a system that is overwhelmed and in so many ways broken.
Ontarian's are sharing with us, on a daily basis, their distress about the months and even years that pass by without progress after starting their adoption journey and being Adopt Ready.
Changes are needed to fix a system that is struggling to quickly match children with their 4ever families.
At Adopt4Life, we believe that there needs to be a collaborative effort with all the adoption key stakeholders in order to drive a solution that works at all levels of the adoptive process."
----Adopt4Life