Community Report 2019

Families in BC. Are we doing everything we can to keep them together?

Our 2019 community report shows that parents in BC need community-led supports to prevent losing custody of their children or to reunite families.

Central City Foundation conducted in-depth interviews in 2019 with 24 leaders of community service organizations in the inner city. The resulting community report details some of the long-term implications of removing kids from their families, and discusses how our child welfare system isn’t helping families. Learn how community-led solutions, like some run by non profit organizations (our community partners), are making a difference and can lead the way to help us understand how to work with communities to create lasting solutions.

Our 2019 community report shows that many parents in BC, especially in the inner city, are losing custody of their children when staying together would be possible if more community supports were available.

Learn more about the  long-term implications of separating children from their parents and how our child welfare system is failing families. Read  about how poverty, the lack of affordable housing and lack of options for childcare are often seen by the system as neglect, and how colonization has created inter-generational trauma that continues to affect families. Learn how community-led solutions can lead the way to help us understand how to create lasting solutions.

Our child welfare system isn’t helping families

“In our current system, extreme poverty is often translated into neglect of the children or a safety issue, when really, the underlying reason is poverty. When they show up to us, it’s called child protection or neglect, but really it’s poverty.” – Karen Dickenson-Smith, Family Services of Greater Vancouver



Download our full community report now