The Issue Children and youth enter foster care at any given age, but in British Columbia all youth in the system must ‘age out’ at 19. When youth age out, the government services and supports they rely on in place of a family are simultaneously cut off. 57% of MORE
The Issue For many years First Call has been advocating for a repeal of section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada. Section 43, also known as the “spanking law,” permits the use of force for disciplining children by parents and persons standing in the place of parents. It reads: MORE
Policy victories: Clawing back the clawbacks First Call coalition members were appreciative when the BC government eliminated the clawback of child support from single parents on income and disability assistance in September 2015, reducing the depth of poverty for more than 5,400 BC children annually. At the same time, another MORE
The Issue Early childhood is a crucial, time-limited period of human development and yet, in BC, young children’s vulnerability rates have risen, families in need of quality child care face a crisis of affordability and access, wait times for early interventions for children with special needs are unacceptable, family support MORE
Click here to visit the Living Wage for Families campaign website. The Issue One of the key contributing factors to child poverty in BC is low-wage poverty. In fact, the majority of poor children in BC live in working poor families. Without living wage standards, parents and other caregivers MORE
The Issue When one child lives in poverty it’s a tragedy, when one in every five children in BC are poor it’s a crisis. Research has long demonstrated that poverty is toxic to children’s health and development. From poor nutrition to family stress to exclusion from social participation, there are MORE