At their Nov. 27 council meetings, both the City of Fort St. John and the City of Dawson Creek proclaimed November as “Adoption and Permanency Awareness Month” to highlight the needs of B.C. youth seeking permanent families.
At Fort St. John city council, resident and foster parent Jamie Giesbrecht presented the proclamation with Lana Halston, a social worker for the Ministry of Children and Family Development.
1,960 of the children and youth in B.C. foster care are indigenous, explained Halston, most of them school-age.
“When making permanency plans for children and youth, it's very important that we keep indigenous children and youth connected to their culture, and that we support them having permanency within their extended family and communities whenever possible,” said Halston.
A parent for more than ten years with six kids - two biological and four adopted - Giesbrecht said adoption is a critically important subject, with 30,000 children currently in foster care across Canada.
“Statistically, children who age out of government care and are never adopted, are at a much higher risk for homelessness, addiction, mental health issues, and incarceration,” said Giesbrecht. “For many youth, when they age out of care they have no one to turn to in hard times when they need support and they may be at risk for victimization as a result.”
B.C. has recognized November as adoption awareness month for several years.
“There continues to be a need for adoptive families and permanent families to nurture the growth and development of children, especially those with special needs because of age, physical, mental, or emotional disabilities, and sibling groups,” states the Dawson Creek proclamation.
Dawson Creek Mayor Darcy Dober said the number of children in need of a home was shocking to him, as 2,616 youth are waiting for permanent families across B.C., and 41 of those children live in the Peace Region.
“We also want to recognize and celebrate all the people who open their homes up to children," said Dober.
