Fallen Feather Productions

British Coumbia’s First Representative for Children and Youth

Head of the independent over site body for BC Ministry of Children and Families.

What follows is an overview of her on camera interview.

And most troubling to me is that the number of non-aboriginal children in government care goes down year after year wile the number of aboriginal children increases.

Currently almost 50% of the children in care are aboriginal. And this affects us all in society.

Only 48% of aboriginal children in BC will graduate form high school. Compared to an 80% average graduation rate.  If they are in government care, only 13% will graduate form High School. Most disturbingly, an Aboriginal child in foster care in British Columbia will be more likely to go to jail then to graduate form school.

It cost $250,000 per year to incarcerate a youth in BC. Add to this the cost of emergency care, from injury, disease, or mental health. What is the total cost to our society for this trauma.   Supporting the families and youth to help promote well-being is far less expensive then the current methods. Not to mention our moral and social obligations.

So why are they not achieving?  There a lot of things happening that do not support aboriginal children.  Systemic racism that exists within our education system that I think is pervasive.  A lot of these institutions have normed the lowest expectations for Aboriginal children. Often it is assumed that an aboriginal child cant learn in the same way, and so they are placed into special programs, however in many cases when these aboriginal children are placed into a supportive environment, they do great.

So lets build a system that will allow them to achieve.

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