September 28, 2018
The Yukon Child and Youth Advocate Office, along with support from Shakat, has produced a video with a young person who grew up in government care in the Yukon.
Carrie Davis, 31, is currently a student of Digital Media Communications living in Nanaimo BC. She lived in foster care and residential care (group homes) for most of her childhood. Carrie asked the Advocate to assist her in producing the video in order to amplify the voices of young people about their experiences with leaving care.
Annette King, Yukon’s Child and Youth Advocate states that this documentary style video is intended to model an approach of engaging young people in telling their experience. “Often on large systemic issues regarding young people, their perspective is not respectfully portrayed”.
“We lived it”, states Davis, “and I want to tell our story without exploiting young people”.
King informs that although ageing out of care continues to be one of the systemic theme that need addressing, the video is not specifically part of the systemic review of group homes the Child and Youth Advocate Office is currently conducting. The group home review is focussed on the experiences of children and youth over a three year period while the ageing out video reflects on past experiences of children and youth leaving care. “The issue of how young people transition out of care is a longstanding issue” states King “It is important to hear from the past to validate those experiences and observe what has changed, and what still needs to be changed, to create the best possible outcomes for children and youth living in care”.
The link to the video, along with a feedback survey, will be available online at www.ycao.ca after the launch on Friday September 28, 2018.
The Child and Youth Advocate Office is an independent office of the Legislative Assembly. The operations of the office are guided by the Child and Youth Advocate Act.
Contact:
Annette King
Child and Youth Advocate
Yukon Child and Youth Advocate Office
(867) 456-5575
annette.king@ycao.ca
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