Minister of Children and Family Development Stephanie Cadieux released the following statement in response to the Representative for Children and Youth’s latest report:

“Like anyone who has read this report, I was horrified by the incredible hardships this young woman endured during her life and by the tragic nature of her death. There is no tougher challenge for social workers and there are no easy solutions in cases like hers where we see a deep history of intergenerational poverty, violence and addiction.

“The fact remains that despite the dedicated and well-intentioned efforts of ministry staff and repeated involvement throughout this young woman’s life by a number of organizations and professionals, the system ultimately failed to keep her from harm.

“The result is unacceptable. There was clearly not enough contact and co-ordination among those who were in touch with her. No one saw the whole picture.

“The task before us all is to learn from what’s happened and find ways to improve how we serve families like hers. My ministry can’t do it alone. It will take an increased commitment by, and collaboration with, service providers across the health, justice, education, child welfare and Aboriginal-service sectors.

“I’ve asked my deputy to broaden the discussion already occurring among ministries about how to improve outcomes and services for youth to include health authorities, practitioners, police and others. I’m sure the Representative’s recommendations will inform that work going forward. But we need to go a step further than the recommendations in this report. We need to take a look at the service delivery model on the Downtown Eastside - one that reaches out to find youth and brings the right services to them.

"I've asked the ministry to institute a rapid-response team model for youth on the Downtown Eastside, so we can catch kids as soon as possible before they become entrenched in the worst areas of the neighbourhood - areas that nobody deems fit for a child or teen to live in.

“There are unique circumstances on the Downtown Eastside that deserve a unique response. We have existing models we can draw from. We're going to use what we've already learned and what we're continuing to learn to build a better approach - one where every professional that is connected to the most high-risk youth on the Downtown Eastside is invited to the table to share their expertise.

"Finally, this young woman’s death wasn’t considered for a director’s case review because the current legislation only allows the Ministry of Children and Family Development to conduct such a review following the critical injury or death of a child or youth, defined by the Child, Family and Community Service Act as someone under the age of 19. This is a legislative deficiency that must be changed and it is one we will look to address.”

A backgrounder follows.

Media Contacts:

Sheldon Johnson
Ministry of Children and Family Development
250 213-5811

Laura Heinze
Ministry of Health
250 952-1887

BACKGROUNDER

Services for youth on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

• Vancouver Youth Services North - located at 550 Cambie Street - provides child protection intake and assessment, referrals, guardianship services, youth agreement program, repatriation, youth support services and emergency supports to help youth meet basic needs.
• The office is co-located with alcohol and drug counsellors, outreach mental-health services, youth forensics, an alternate school, and a life-skills/employment program for youth justice-involved youth.
• Yankee 20 is a partnership between the Vancouver Police Department and MCFD providing a joint police/social work response to high risk, missing or sexually exploited youth aged 12-18. It operates out of Vancouver Youth Services North.
• This support is specific to the Downtown Eastside, though similar partnerships exist in other communities.
• For instance, in Vancouver MCFD also partners with the VPD on Car 86, which deals with child protection issues for kids under the age of 13.
• The office also hosts weekly Reconnect meetings, which bring together outreach workers and other service providers to coordinate intervention strategies to assist high risk youth.
• The ministry also funds a number of agencies that provide resources and support for at-risk youth in the Downtown Eastside. For Example:
  • Annual funding of $1.7 million to the Urban Native Youth Association, which offers programs and direct one-to-one services for Aboriginal youth and families, including a transition to adulthood program for youth aged 16-18.
  • $1 million to the Urban Native Youth Association in 2005 for development and planning of their Native Youth Centre.
  • The ministry-funded Directions Youth Services Centre provides services and support to at-risk youth 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and provides an extensive range of services to homeless and at-risk youth up to age 24, including food, housing support, employment support, outreach services, referrals to other service providers and assistance with repatriations, and a transition to independence program.
  • To reach out and link at-risk youth with supports, we have created programs like I-RAYL for vulnerable young people who are drawn to popular social hubs at Sky Train stations.
• Youth throughout Vancouver also have access to or support from:
  • Youth shelters - three staffed voluntary residential programs for youth who are absent from home and need a temporary safe place to stay. Referrals are accepted 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
  • Youth Supported Housing Sites -
    • Directions Supported Housing Program with 10 individual self-contained suites for youth aged 16-19 who are referred by a MCFD or VACFSS social worker for youth at risk of homelessness.
    • Broadway Fraser Building with 30 self-contained supported housing suites allocated to youth under 24 years (10 are allocated for youth involved with MCFD or VACFSS). Co-located with the Broadway Youth Resource Centre.
  • Strive (YWCA) - a 12-week program for youth aged 17-24 who are transitioning, or have transitioned out of care, and are not in school or working. Participants are provided with personalized coaching, workshops, volunteer placements, work experience and education planning. They also receive help with budgeting, paid job training and are connected to community resources.
  • Day programs - Through a partnership between the Vancouver School Board and MCFD there are eight day programs available to MCFD or Delegated Aboriginal Agency-involved youth who have been unsuccessful in, or unable to access, a mainstream or alternative Vancouver School Board program. Offers academic secondary-school programming, as well as social, life and vocational skills development.
  • C.U.E. program (PLEA) - a supported life skills and employment program for youth who are justice-involved.
• We are also working to address the root causes of the issues these young people are faced with - which can include mental health and problematic substance use issues.
• The ministry invests approximately $93 million annually to address child and youth mental health and substance use challenges.

Health services for vulnerable Vancouver youth

• The Ministry of Health ─  through local health authorities and the Provincial Health Services Authority - delivers emergency, acute and specialized, and tertiary-level mental health services and substance use services for children and youth.
• Vancouver Coastal has begun work to redesign health care services in the Downtown Eastside, to better meet the unique needs of this community. Specific areas of focus include:
  • Integrating care.
  • Improving care team competency in Aboriginal culture and trauma.
  • Increasing accessibility to detox services, methadone therapy and supervised injection.
  • Linking non-clinical services, such as social services and housing, with clinical services, to create consistency and improve patient outcomes.
• Some of the current services offering care specifically to vulnerable youth in and around the Downtown Eastside include:
  • The Inner City Youth Team - Serves youth 24 years and under who are homeless or at risk of homelessness and living with mental illness and/or addiction. The goal of the program is to address three basic needs of Vancouver’s street youth population: health care, shelter, and social support. The team’s downtown Vancouver sites include: Covenant House shelter, St. Paul's Hospital, Imuoto Housing for Young Women, Pacific Coast apartments, Renfrew House, St. Helen's Hotel, Marguerite Ford Apartments and the Granville Youth Health Centre.
  • Granville Youth Health Centre - Part of the Inner City Youth Team and designed as a youth-friendly setting, serving youth and young adults by providing easily accessible, patient-centred health and social services, including primary care, mental health, substance use counselling, peer support and life skills programs.
  • Renfrew House - A six-bed youth group home offering housing, social supports and clinical care for vulnerable youth aged 16-24. Renfrew House provides youth with a structured environment for three to six months, where they can stabilize their lives and the Inner City Youth Team can provide the clinical care and support they need to make a recovery.
  • Raven Song Community Health Centre - Youth clinic services are available seven days a week, plus holidays, and include mental health and addiction treatment, youth detox outreach and follow-up care, sexual and reproductive health services and general primary care. Vulnerable youth also have easy access to youth-specific primary care with several clinic choices throughout Vancouver, including:
    • Three Bridges Community Health Centre at Hornby near Davie
    • South Community Health Centre at Knight near 48th
    • Pacific Spirit Community Health Centre on West 43rd in Kerrisdale
    • East Van Public Health Youth Clinic at Broadway and Commercial
  • Watari counselling and support services -Watari provides support to homeless and vulnerable youth, including day-treatment programs for substance use and mental health, and Aboriginal youth outreach.
  • Sheway - A pregnancy outreach program providing health and social service supports to pregnant women and women who are dealing with drug and alcohol issues and have infants under 18 months old. The focus of the program is to help the women have healthy pregnancies and positive early parenting experiences.
  • The Urban Native Youth Association - With support from Vancouver Coastal Health and others, the UNYA offers several Aboriginal youth programs, including live-in programs located in the Downtown Eastside, that incorporate cultural traditions with a holistic clinical approach.
• As of March 2015, the ministry, in partnership with Doctors of BC, has invested an estimated $4.4 million in the Child and Youth Mental Health and Substance Use Collaborative to support children, youth and families struggling with mental health and substance use issues in B.C.

Crime Prevention Projects for Youth At Risk:

• Government also supports community-led anti-violence and crime prevention initiatives through civil forfeiture grant funding, including those focused on youth. In the past two years, a number of grants have been provided to support initiatives that include specific programming for at-risk youth in Vancouver, including the Downtown Eastside.
• In March 2015, the B.C. government provided almost $80,000 in civil forfeiture grant funding to support to the following projects:
  • The Vancouver Roving Leaders Program, which supports over 160 vulnerable, at-risk youth in the Grandview-Woodlands and Hastings-Sunrise, Renfrew, Collingwood and Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhoods through recreation and cultural programming.
  • The Frames Film Project, which supports at-risk youth in East Vancouver to participate in pro-social arts-based activities.
  • The NASKARZ project, which works with at-risk youth to enhance employment skills and opportunities, and provide educational advantages and support to help them reintegrate into the educational and college systems.
  • The BOLDSKOOL Project, which supports high-risk youth through arts-based workshops.
• In 2013-14, government provided approximately $174,000 in civil forfeiture grant funding to support a number of youth-focused projects, including:
  • Sisters Speak, a project that helps young Aboriginal women, youth and girls who are at risk of being sexually exploited in Vancouver’s Eastside and local schools.
  • A project led by the Aboriginal Front Door Society to help improve the healing foundations and pro-social connections for Aboriginal women and girls at risk of sexual exploitation and human trafficking in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
  • The KidSafe Young Leaders Program, a summer leadership program for 50 vulnerable youth (ages 11-13) from six inner-city elementary schools. Participants in the eight-week program participated in activities designed to help build self-esteem, develop leadership and peer relationship skills, prepare for high-school transition, promote citizenry, and increase job readiness.
  • The Inner City Youth Vocational Support Project, which provides assistance to at-risk youth and assists them with vocational and educational opportunities.
  • A program through the PLEA Community Services Society of BC to provide employment and mentorship to young people, aged 15 to 18, who are identified as gang members, affiliated with criminal associates, or at high risk of gang involvement.

Media Contacts:

Sheldon Johnson
Ministry of Children and Family Development
250 213-5811

Laura Heinze
Ministry of Health
250 952-1887