'Ontario youth aging out of foster care say they need more support. These groups are stepping in
On May 24th, the CBC posted an article titled "'I feel like I have no one': Aging out of foster care leaves youth struggling with life skills'
The article highlights the challenges faced by Living Experts of the child protection system, specifically as services are terminated and they "age out". We appreciated the article highlighting the impacts of not having that unconditional, lifelong support
"Kids who grew up as Crown wards feel really alone," [Nadia] said. "We just need people to be there for us. Just one solid person."
Members in our community who saw the article reached out to the journalist to tell them about the work that Never Too Late (NTL) does.
We were thrilled to be contacted by CBC for an interview that was used to write a follow-up article talking about supports for Lived Experts. Wendy Hayes, who does our communications work and is a Living Expert themselves, spoke to CBC about the importance of having Humans.
(Note: while it was stressed that Humans are caregivers/parents, not mentors, the language of mentors is used in the article).
Never Too Late (NTL) was also invited to be interviewed on CBC Radio 1's show the Afternoon Drive which airs in the London/Windsor area.
We are so grateful to our community for their passion and initiative in reaching out to CBC! We would not have had the opportunity to talk about our work to such a broad audience otherwise!
"Everyone deserves to have that unconditional person in their life who's there to support them, no matter what and with no time limit," Hayes said.