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Fostering Truth: A Tyee Interactive Feature

What happens to vulnerable BC kids who 'graduate' from public support at 19? A special report.

Pieta Woolley, Kayla Cherkas, Sandra Tirado and Sebastian Guerrero 12 Oct 2013Tyee Solutions Society

Pieta Woolley reports on solutions to breaking the link between foster care and youth homelessness for the Tyee Solutions Society.

Kayla Cherkas, Sebastian Guerrero, and Sandra Tirado built the multimedia feature as students at the Vancouver Film School.

This article was produced by Tyee Solutions Society in collaboration with Tides Canada Initiatives (TCI), with funding from the Vancouver Foundation. TCI and the Vancouver Foundation neither influence nor endorse the particular content of TSS' reporting. Other publications wishing to publish this story or other Tyee Solutions Society-produced articles, please see this website for contacts and information.

What's the deal for British Columbian kids who've been in "the system" -- that collection of welfare, justice and child-protection agencies that intervene in thousands of young lives every year -- once those kids graduate from public support at age 19?

Some make it on to university. Most don't.

Tyee Solutions Society reporter Pieta Woolley collaborated with a volunteer team of digital designers from Vancouver Film School -- Kayla Cherkas, Sebastian Guerrero, and Sandra Tirado -- to produce this interactive exploration of some of those young people's stories, and the factors that have influenced them.

Stories of kids like 5hadow, who at seven was already parenting his little brother. Or Kevin, who is reminded of escaping his abusive foster home every time he encounters the smell of old cars or trees.

There's also a feature interview with Gitxsan child welfare activist Cindy Blackstock, who explains how lessons of the past can help diminish the number of abused and neglected kids in the province.

You'll find many more nuggets and surprises throughout the interactive feature, the first ever project of its kind for The Tyee and The Tyee Solutions Society.

CLICK HERE OR THE IMAGE BELOW TO BEGIN EXPLORING THE INTERACTIVE FEATURE:

582px version of fosteringtruth-embedded.jpg
Click image above for interactive feature.
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