Children and Youth in Care Day 2020

This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the OACAS YouthCAN team released a toolkit to support child welfare agencies to celebrate virtually. The toolkit, informed by the OACAS Youth for Change Steering Committee and CAS staff, included activities to make celebrations more accessible, authentic, and engaging. Some of the ways agencies recognized their youth this year included: dropping off care kits; delivering pizza and messages of warmth and support; gifting movie passes and setting up virtual parties for their youth to connect and socialize; putting together videos to show their young people they are surrounded by a supportive community; and encouraging youth to share what Children and Youth in Care Day means to them.

With the hashtag #CARE4CARE, OACAS focused on building social media presence to raise awareness within and beyond the child welfare sector about the importance of the day. OACAS successfully engaged forty-two Members of Provincial Parliament, 7 Ministers, the Premier, and all Provincial Party Leaders in recognizing Children and Youth in Care Day on various social media platforms. For a full breakdown of who participated, view our chart here.

For many of the young people in and from care, the public nature of the celebrations on social media meant that they were participating in the day in a much more visible way to those outside the child welfare sector. For some, this meant publicly disclosing their status as a person with lived experience in the Ontario child welfare system for the first time. It also meant that events held remotely were more accessible to a wider range, and potentially more diverse group, of young people in and from care given the reduction of barriers to participate. However, the need to improve young people’s access to technology became even more apparent on the day, as there was a significant gap between those with stable Internet and devices, and those without. This is especially important because those with technological barriers disproportionately include young people who are rural, remote, Northern, and/or from marginalized identity groups (e.g., Indigenous/First Nation/Inuit, African Canadian).

Due to COVID-19, the challenges that young people in and from care face (e.g., inaccessible mental health services, housing instability, lack of community support) have been severely exacerbated. This was weighing heavily on the minds of many youth who engaged on May 14. Participants were vocal about the need for increased supports for those transitioning out of care, anxiety about when the moratorium will end, and the quality of care for those still in the system.

Overall, the celebration on May 14, 2020 reflected a diverse range of engagement within and outside the child welfare sector. The nature of social media provided a platform for those with lived experience to amplify their voice. The hope is that recognition for children and youth in and from care, and intentional discussions about reducing challenges within the system, is something we build into our every aspect of our work.