Friday, September 25, 2015

This Day In Clarkland....Hotels? What Hotels?

DoingOurWorstForThoseWhoNeedOurHelp
MostVille


First there was this:




Then there was this, from Lori Culbert in the VSun:

Somewhere between 23 and 50 foster children have been placed in B.C. hotels in the past year, officials reported one week after a foster youth fell to his death from the window of a hotel where he’d been housed for months.

The numbers are imprecise and vary according to whom you ask.

The children’s ministry puts the number at 23 hotel stays, for an average of five days each, between November 2014 and this month.

However, the provincial representative for children and youth believes the number is higher. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond’s files suggest between 30 and 50 youth in the care of the Ministry for Children and Families have been lodged in hotels instead of group or foster homes in the last year.

“Why is this happening?” asked Turpel-Lafond...



And then there is even more, from a report from the Canadian Press:

...Turpel-Lafond stressed that her office has no difficulty interacting with the ministry's front-line workers and directed her condemnation towards upper management.

"Who would actually believe them when they tell you they're adamant no kid will be in a hotel and then a young person is in a hotel in crisis and dies,' she said. "Will I take what they tell me at face value ever again? Probably not.''...


Look.

I take no pleasure in learning any of this.

But it just needs to end.

Unfortunately, until the folks in charge and those respsonsible are held to account, I very much fear that it will not.


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7 comments:

North Van's Grumps said...

Why is it RossK that the BC Liberal Government is using the word YEAR when it fact the Youth have been living independently since before your 2012 Post?

Has the Ministry been using the costs of a Christmas gift to pay for unsupervised hotels without 'family' support?

Friday, December 21, 2012
My Analysis Of The MCFD's EMail To All Staff Regarding Christmas Gifts For Children In Their Care
AreWe,WeAre
TheParsingVille

"Any claim that the ministry will not be supplying Christmas gifts for children in care is absolutely inaccurate and it is very concerning that this erroneous message was sent to a client. In fact, social workers are encouraged to ensure every child and youth in care receives gifts during the holiday season.

Funding to cover gifts for children and youth in care is built-in to monthly payments the ministry sends to foster parents. For children and youth living independently or on Youth Agreements, ministry staff are authorized and encouraged to ensure those young people are remembered over the holidays and gifts are provided."

Youth Agreement is a legal agreement between you and the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD). The purpose of the agreement is to help you gain independence, return to school, and/or gain work experience and life skills, and protect your right to be:

healthy and independent
protected from abuse, neglect or harm
given guidance by a parent or adult
supported in your cultural identity
supported to make safe, healthy choices, and
helped to gain self-confidence.

The ministry may be able to help you if you feel you are at risk

Anonymous said...

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/09/24/alex-gervais-death_n_8193334.html

misled(lied?)on health researcher death being checked by police ,BC admitted.?

RossK said...

NVG--

Why is it?

I really, really wish I knew.

The why, I mean.

__________

Thanks Anon-Above--

Will front Ms. Turpel-Lafond's statement

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e.a.f. said...

It is we the voters who are responsible for this just as much as management and the politicians. We elected Christi and her cabal. The failed to provide adequate funding and staffing. Management just decided to try to please their political masters.

Children will continue to live in hotels. Children will continue to die in care because most people just don't care and children don't vote. The. B. c lieberals will simply continue doing what they are doing. Nothing will change even if a child per week died. Christy and her cabal are only interested in them selves and weird gas deals going no where

North Van's Grumps said...

Blame game explanations are not restricted to the Government of BC, there's this document on shared responsibility with the Government of Canada:

If you identify yourself as a First Nations person, are you registered under the Indian Act of Canada (ie. Status Indian)?

Residential School Minister of Hotels
The Honourable Bernard Valcourt
Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development

Where does Stephen Harper stand on keeping aboriginal youth in detention, residential hotels, like Super 8?

Anonymous said...

When was the last time premier stayed at super 8 or any other BC liberal?

e.a.f. said...

A. at 2:53, sept. 26: B.C. Lieberals and all M.L.A.s have a $12K a year housing allowance. No receipts required. Even those who live in Victoria receive this allowance. That is over and above their "expense accounts".

Stephen Harper, Christy Clark and most politicians in this country don't give a shit about kids, of any race or nationality, staying in detention, residential hotels, on the streets, in the forest. The politicians only care that if it is publicized in the press. Kids don't register on a politician's agenda because they don't vote. You won't find Steve's religious base too interested in kids living in lousy conditions either.