Regional Partners & Activities

The Office of the Child and Family Service Advocacy (OFCSA) created a structure and process through which consultation of children and youth in government care provided feedback concerning Bill 165 and the Transition to Adulthood Policy Framework. Thanks to Bill 165 the OFCSA is now the independent Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth.

Although the Office is now independent, the structure and process for ongoing, meaningful consultation is in place.

We have been actively engaged at one time or another with a variety of community based organizations in Thunder Bay, Windsor, Ottawa, Sudbury, Hamilton and Toronto.

Windsor:
Sandwich Teen Action Group
Kids Alliance
Teen Health Centre
New Beginnings

Ottawa:
Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa
Canadian Advocacy Network

Thunder Bay:
Regional Multicultural Youth Council
Creighton Youth Services
Harbour Youth Services of Thunder Bay

Sudbury:
Sudbury Action Centre for youth

Hamilton:
Youth Engagement & Action in Hamilton (YEAH) YMCA of Hamilton/Burlington
Social Planning and Research Council of Hamilton

Provincial and National Networks:
Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement/the Students Commission of Canada
Childrens Mental Health Ontario
Taking It Global
National Youth in Care Network
Town Youth Participation Strategy

Current Activities

Rights Education Project

Every child has the inherent right to life, and the state shall ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child UNCRC, Article6

The Rights Education Projects (over and under 12) are based upon focusing on the rights of children and youth in accordance to the UN Convention On The Rights of The Child. The Rights projects are designed as a response to the needs of children and youth in settings such as Child Welfare, Youth Justice and Mental Health etc. The Rights projects provide information to children and youth about their rights and encourages them to safely and effectively advocate for themselves. Through interactive workshops and projects children and youth are able to learn about their rights and also work with one another and implement ideas and activities in order to spread awareness of rights.

Goals of Rights Education Project:

To help young people understand and know more about their rights in various settings
To connect young people to advocacy support
To help young people become rights and advocacy educators
To support youth initiatives in projects
To provide a safe place where young people can discuss rights issues and help each other develop solutions to problems they may face

Kinship Care Network (KCN)

The goal

The goal of KCN is to work with young people and their caregivers who are a part of the Kinship care system to ensure they are getting the proper treatment and funding that they are entitled to.

Who are we?

We are currently a youth lead group who meets on a weekly basis at OPACY. Our group consists of young people from the care system with one support staff. The purpose of our group is to research, collect data, and explore ideas that will help improve and enrich the lives of young children and youth living in the kinship care system. We strive for a system that knows and addresses the needs of every individual. Our mission is to create a provincial standard for everyone who lives in kinship care. As individuals who grew up in the care system we feel that the issues of kinship care are often overlooked. We also understand the importance of family which is why we strongly advocate keeping children within families when possible.

Childrens Advisory Group

We are young but we are also knowledgeable
The Childrens Advisory Group, home of the Alligator is a group created for children between the ages of 7-13 yrs old. For those who might be a bit concerned about our title, we would like to tell you that our title is no more than the name of the Advocacy Office Mascot that we created. If parents or adults use the word (Alligator) in any other way, we would like to take the word back. We meet on a weekly basis.

The purpose of the group is to talk about issues in a safe environment and to have our voices heard Our Childrens Advisory Committee is also helping us redesign our youth engagement section of our website to be more engaging and youth friendly. This advisory committee is also helping us prepare for November 20th, 2008, National Childrens Day. Stay tuned for further details!!

Look out for Issue 1,2 and 3 Listen to the Alligator Newsletter

Youth Violence Project

At the present time we are working with our regional contacts to engage the young people in their community to talk about their hopes, vision and their strategies for wiping out youth violence.

Violence prevention solutions must address the root cause of violence i.e. biological, environmental, social and academic. There are many factors that put youth at risk to become violent, but our wish is to work together to find the deterrents.

We believe that it is the youth themselves who can be the most proactive in promoting violence prevention strategies and violence prevention awareness making their schools and communities safe for all.