Children and Youth report - Growing Up in B.C.

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October 18, 2010

Turtle Island Native Network notes how a major report in BC is spinning good news
but really shows an Aboriginal existence that is unacceptable.

For example

- Aboriginal children and youth encounter significant disadvantage and face more health risks.

- Children of Status Indian mothers are twice as likely to be prenatally exposed to some type of substance use compared to other children.

Most kids in government care in British Columbia are Aboriginal - so it is significant to note that this new report highlights what life is like for kids in care.

- Aboriginal kids in care score the lowest marks on provincial achievement tests out of any group in the province.

- Children in care are nearly three times more likely to consider suicide – and nearly six times more likely to have attempted suicide at least once – than youth who have never been in care.

- Aboriginal children and children in care are less likely to experience success in school.

- Aboriginal youth are less likely to feel safe in school and report they are more likely to be bullied, teased or picked on.

- Children in care are more likely to engage in risky behaviour, such as using tobacco, alcohol and drugs.

- Children in care are more likely to have gone to bed hungry.
- - -

"While most young people are doing well, youth involved in the child protection system are more likely
to get pregnant, smoke or use alcohol or drugs.

Aboriginal children and youth and young people living in Northern B.C., the Interior and parts of Vancouver Island struggle with basic health issues.

However, some of the findings show promise for equality and improved outcomes. Young people in care participate in positive leisure and recreational activities at the same or higher rate than their peers.

Aboriginal students report high rates of participation in extra-curricular activities."
- - -

For Immediate Release

Oct. 18, 2010

Sweeping New Report Looks at Life Today and Possibilities Tomorrow for B.C.’s Children and Youth

VANCOUVER – A unique report released today takes a sweeping look at young lives across the province, using as wide a lens as possible to examine the state of British Columbia’s children and youth.

B.C.’s Representative for Children and Youth and the Provincial Health Officer released Growing Up in B.C. on the opening morning of the 2010 Champions for Children and Youth Summit.

The joint report by Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond and Dr. Perry Kendall is a ground-breaking examination of six important aspects of child well-being – health, learning, safety, behaviour, family economic wellbeing and family, peer and community connections.

Turpel-Lafond said that in the report, the voices of youth were brought to the forefront, a focus was placed on the most vulnerable child and youth populations, and leading Canadian scholars were engaged to comment on findings.

“The special areas chosen for examination in this report provide a broad and balanced picture of B.C.’s young people – the positives and the negatives, from infancy through adolescence. We look at how well they are doing right now and the data will help predict how well they will do in the future,” said Turpel-Lafond.

“The report is the start of important conversations about ensuring that all infants experience the conditions they need to have the best possible start in life,” said Kendall. “It continues the conversation towards what is necessary for children to have opportunities to learn and thrive, and for adolescents to be supported, guided, and ultimately to make healthy life choices.

“The goal from all of this is to identify a detailed set of indicators that can influence child and youth health and well-being, and that can be tracked by government over time,” he said.

Growing Up in B.C. provides the context for the next two days of Summit discussions led by international child research specialists and Canadian experts in the field of children and youth services. Summit presenters and delegates will also hear from children and youth, ensuring that their voices are included in meaningful discussions.

“We look forward to this report and our Summit sparking conversations and initiating action to ensure that all B.C. children are happy, healthy and given the support and opportunities they deserve,” said Turpel-Lafond.

The Summit, October 18th and 19th at Vancouver’s Sheraton Wall Centre, is a follow-up to the successful 2008 event, and is organized by the Representative for Children and Youth.

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Full Summit program information and an online version of Growing Up in B.C. can be found at http://www.rcybc.ca .


Highlights
Growing Up in B.C.

A Joint Report by the Representative for Children and Youth
and the Provincial Health Officer

Growing Up in B.C. was undertaken to better understand and raise awareness of the state of child health and well-being in the province. The report is unlike any other in B.C. – the voices and views of youth are fundamental to the findings, and the report focuses on the most vulnerable child and youth populations.

The report reviewed the following areas: child health, child learning, child safety, family economic well-being, family, peer and community connections and child behaviour.

Key Findings
•
Teenage birth rates have declined.
•
Rate of youth suicide has gone down.
•
Intentional injuries to children and youth have decreased.
•
Nearly 80 per cent of young people graduate from high school within six years of entering Grade 8.
•
Over 60 per cent of youth reported having volunteered in the past year.
Worrisome Trends
•
Aboriginal children and youth encounter significant disadvantage and face more health risks.
•
Children of Status Indian mothers are twice as likely to be prenatally exposed to some type of substance use compared to other children.
•
Children in care are nearly three times more likely to consider suicide – and nearly six times more likely to have attempted suicide at least once – than youth who have never been in care.
•
Aboriginal children and children in care are less likely to experience success in school.

•
Aboriginal youth are less likely to feel safe in school and report they are more likely to be bullied, teased or picked on.
•
Children in care are more likely to engage in risky behaviour, such as using tobacco, alcohol and drugs.
•
Children in care are more likely to have gone to bed hungry.
•
Youth physical activity rates go down with age, as do the number of teens who report that they like school and think their teachers care about them.
•
Poverty was seen by youth as impacting all aspects of life – housing, food, substance use, school and sports participation.
What Youth Said
•
Youth consistently identified having an adult in their life to turn to for support and guidance as an indicator of well being.
•
Young people in middle school are seen as particularly vulnerable.
•
Youth felt they need to be more involved in these types of reports if child health and well-being outcomes are to improve.
•
Youth in care consistently talked about the challenges they face in everyday life, such as creating and maintaining long-term relationships, having no-one to see them graduate, not having adult support or financial means to encourage them to do well in school or apply for post-secondary education.

What Was Missing
•
Key areas of child and youth health and well-being could not be reported on due to a lack of reliable data.
•
These areas include:
- a consistent definition of special needs
- a lack of indicators of good mental health or emotional well-being
- indicators of parenting capacity, to understand how to better support parents when issues are identified
- the number of children and youth who experience domestic violence
•
These are important areas, and the experiences of these vulnerable groups need to be captured.

Moving Forward
•
Don’t understand enough about how some populations of youth overcome the challenges they are faced with and others are unable to.
•
Don’t understand enough about the role that culture plays in the decisions young people make.
•
Need to continue to involve youth in this conversation, and work together to improve our knowledge in these important areas.
•
Provincial Health Officer is working with Canadian Institute for Health Information to identify a comprehensive set of child health and well-being indicators for B.C.
•
Goal is to develop a more detailed set of indicators that can be tracked.
•
Need to link data on resources available to families – such as income, services etc – with outcome data – such as education, health etc – to better understand how well families are doing and where support should be better focussed to improve life for the province’s children and youth.

2010 Champions for Children and Youth
Summit Speakers
Keynote speakers include:
Olympian Clara Hughes, flag bearer for Canada’s 2010 Olympic Team
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn A-in-Chut Atleo
Ryan Clayton, member of the City of Vancouver’s LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) Advisory Committee and Youth Activist
David E. Park, research associate, Justice Institute of British Columbia, economist emeritus Vancouver Board of Trade and author of Kids ‘N Crime: Economic Aspects of Development and Prevention of Criminality among Children and Youth
Naomi Haines Griffith, motivational speaker and family systems specialist from Nashville, Tennessee.
Full list of additional Summit session speakers and program information can be found at http://www.rcybc.ca
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Data about Aboriginal Children and Youth

Aboriginal children as a whole do not fare as well as other
children in B.C. on indicators of well-being. Specifically, the
challenge of a disproportionate representation of Aboriginal
children in care speaks to underlying issues rooted in a
colonial past.

Throughout the domains, Aboriginal children
and youth score poorly on all indicators. This demands a closer
scrutiny of the data and compels one to ask: what are the
realities, current and historical, that frame the lives of these
children? How do we measure those realities? How do we
assess the impact of cultural differences? Leading scholars
have observed that a disproportionate number of children in
care are Indigenous.31, 32

These realities are a significant reason
as to why Indigenous peoples across Canada live in what
some call “third world conditions of health” and what others
refer to as the “embodiment of inequality.” 33

In analyzing the unique factors that lead to vulnerability
for Aboriginal children and youth, three themes emerge.
First, there are significant problems with the data from the
perspective of the scale of the measures used. At present,
they are too broad both geographically and socially to
capture nuances between places in the province and
groups of children and youth. Second, it is impossible to
determine results from questions that do not reflect an
Indigenous perspective.

This is especially the case when trying to answer questions of
a social cultural nature. This is related to the third theme, the
importance of understanding the specific cultural or identity
context of Aboriginal children and youth.

An example of the impact of the non-Indigenous paradigm
is within the Child Learning domain. The indicators illustrate
a focus on Euro-western conceptions of learning and school
success and do not incorporate Aboriginal perspectives on
learning and achievement. While skills such as literacy and
numeracy are important in ensuring that Aboriginal people
are able to compete in the labour market and thus improve
their socio-economic circumstances, equally important for
Aboriginal people is that “land, the knowledge and skills in
and from place, language and culture are integral parts of
the learning and education process.”34

Readings of, or discussions about this data should be done
carefully and critically, with a basic understanding that the
data hasn’t captured a full picture of Aboriginal children,
youth, and the communities they are a part of today and
will form in the future. Tools cannot be used from one
paradigm to measure another paradigm.35

What is needed is the development of tools and
processes for assessing the diversity in which
Aboriginal children and youth exist.

There is a significant and persistent lack of data
concerning Canada’s First Peoples – and as a result an
inability to fully understand the realities of Indigenous
children and youth in this province. This is a systemic
issue of concern, along with the contextual difficulties
it creates when trying to improve the lives of B.C.’s
most vulnerable and often most marginalized children
and youth.

The care and education of Aboriginal children is not
just an Aboriginal problem. All British Columbians
have a role to play in realizing the health and wellbeing
of their most vulnerable citizens. Supporting
and strengthening families is key to the care of all
B.C.’s children and youth. Children have the right
to realize their optimal growth and development
within the embrace of their families and communities.
Together, all British Columbians are responsible for
this province’s greatest gifts – our children.

Margo Greenwood with Regine Halseth and Sarah de Leeuw
University of Northern British Columbia