Making sure young adults leaving government care have the tools to be successful is the focus of a series of innovative provincial partnerships with TELUS, IBM, the Adoptive Families Association of BC and the Public Guardian and Trustee.

MCFD social worker Karen Zilke tries to convince a homeless 17-year-old on a Vancouver sidewalk to join her for breakfast at a nearby restaurant.

Government has accepted all of the recommendations in the representative for children and youth’s (RCY) latest report and has committed to additional actions to further strengthen the contracted residential care system and improve planning for all children and youth in government care.

More youth in care will benefit from extended supports, including life skills programs that focus on financial planning, healthy living and employability, thanks to changes to the Agreements with Young Adults (AYA) program.

Happy kids mean happy families, and that’s why the B.C. government has provided $1.49 million to the Canadian Mental Health Association BC Division (CMHABC) to support the ‘Confident Parents: Thriving Kids’ program, which helps parents address behavioural problems in kids aged three to 12.

Student safety – and B.C.’s award winning Seismic Mitigation Program – took a step forward with the announcement of $19.6 million in provincial funding to replace Sir Sandford Fleming Elementary.

Two new online resources are now available to families living on low incomes and to communities working with them to ensure their needs are met.

The new Provincial Office for the Early Years will focus on the needs of families with children up to age six and help ensure they have easy access to a range of early-years services no matter where they live in B.C.