One of the challenges is this transition to adulthood. The approach in British Columbia and most provinces is that it happens around 18 or 19. In British Columbia it's 19. But through research and experience with Canadian families we know that adolescence extends into the early twenties. Most people peg it closer to 24.
There's very limited work done before a child ages out of the child welfare system. In our surveys, in our work with children who are aging out of the case system, many of them don't understand the social service system. They're aging out of care into social assistance.
The types of personal and institutional supports that a child and a family would receive, let's say around supporting post-secondary education or supporting children who may have had poor starts in these things, don't happen for children in care. So there are some very significant gaps and inequalities around that. There are inadequate services provincially and, of course, nothing federally.