SURREY — You've probably heard the oftrepeated African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child," but for a Surrey charity it's literally a core value in caring for foster children.
SOS Children's Village operates five houses in a Surrey neighbourhood that offers foster children a chance to feel part of a real family, explains the charity's executive director Douglas Dunn.
"The dynamic is such that we grow together, we work together, we love together and when the kids turn 19, that's just another birthday," says Dunn. "That's not a separation."
It's a bold philosophical difference of opinion from the Ministry of Children and Family Development, which relinquishes care and control of foster kids when they come of age. The result is often "horrendous" according to Dunn.
Most young adults in B.C. who are 19 years of age and leaving foster care will, within six months, find themselves on social assistance or in jail. Their chances of being involved in the criminal justice system within two years of their eighteenth birthday are 46 per cent.
And while the provincial graduation rate for high school is roughly 78 per cent, just one in five foster kids will receive a diploma. The consequences are sadly predictable. Dunn says that based on statistics collected by the United Way homeless count last year, two thirds of visible homeless people identified as having been through foster care at some point in their lives.
"The work is hard," concedes Dunn. "There's failures and there's successes."
To tackle the problem, SOS Children's Village is building basement suites in their five foster homes to accommodate youth in transition to adulthood. Foster kids aged 16 to 24 can learn to live with some semblance of independence in the suites, while continuing to receive the support of the village, explains Dunn.
"The difference between us and the ministry is we believe they're our children forever," he says, adding the village offers a place for youth to return if they're having trouble making it on their own.
Many parents are experiencing the "rebounding" effect of youth who find it hard to leave the nest on their first try, and Dunn says foster children are no different.
Adjusting to independence can be very challenging for many foster children, particularly given their backgrounds. All of the children currently cared for in Surrey's village were either born with fetal alcohol syndrome or had drug-addicted parents.
Surrey's first participant in the transition to adulthood program was a boy who, between the ages of 12 and 19, had moved to 50 different foster homes. Dunn says despite some of those moves being due to behavioural problems, it's natural for the circumstances.
"By definition, foster children are in trauma. Their family has broken down, they've been removed."
The anger and frustration of many youth in foster care can make them lash out, even at SOS. Dunn says some have left the village vowing they'd never return, only to come back "home" for the community support.
"Because the only people in the world who have shown concern and love and respect for them were the people here," explains Dunn. "So they've come back to us and sought, sometimes, just minor support."
Dunn recalls a story of one young man who was enrolled in an apprenticeship program but could not graduate because he didn't have government approved identification with a current address. Having moved so many times through foster homes he didn't really have a fixed address.
The village recently received their first "grandchild." A young woman who left SOS village at 19 returned pregnant with a boyfriend and nowhere to live. While the baby was removed from the couple by the Ministry of Children and Family Development, the baby was placed with a foster mother in the village.
"We call her our first grandchild because that individual was with us, she will always be an SOS child. She's going through some challenges now but we're bound and determined to help her through that. And we're helping her child to make sure that her child doesn't grow up and go through the same experiences."
Dunn says the critical part of preventing that cycle is to give foster kids a safe place to live, with a group of siblings to play with, a village to look after the children and - most importantly - the caregiver or foster mom.
"A mom is the heart of a home who creates that sense of belonging, who creates the love that brings and keeps a family together and helps heal trauma and issues children have suffered," says Dunn.
When SOS village was first proposed in the neighbourhood 10 years ago, Dunn says there were some "challenges" convincing residents of the need.
"To be really blunt, some people accused us of creating a foster ghetto. The exact opposite is the case."
Dunn says the village has created a tighter knit neighbourhood when people look out for one another and come together for community barbecues and birthday parties.
SOS village has enough land to build five more houses and Dunn says the charity is exploring options to lease or rent homes in the area to expand the village.
The City of Surrey recently removed a restricted covenant on the title that had prevented a secondary suite on their current houses in order to start construction on the youth in transition basement suites, expected to be completed by May. Dunn says the suites will help make an immediate change in Surrey's youth homelessness issue.
For more information visit Sosbc.org.