From the outside, the unassuming house partly hidden behind a tree in the corner lot on Pape Avenue doesn’t look like much. But for hundreds of youth aging out of the child welfare system, the Pape Adolescent Resource Centre (PARC) is the only hub in the GTA where they can access services designed to help with the transition out of foster care.

Still, a lack of basic life-skill training while in care, absence of government data on the adult experience of foster kids, and being the only centre of its kind makes it challenging for programs like PARC to service youth at a critical time in their lives, advocates say.

“It is a program that is well-used, under-resourced, and it is the only game in town for kids that are transitioning from in-care to independence that has this kind of sophistication to its programming,” said Rob Thompson, director of communications at the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) of Toronto.

Five full-time Adolescent Workers and six other staff, all from CAS, offer individual support and group programs including financial literacy, emotional support, immigration, mental health, housing, and legal help.

But workers are left somewhat in the dark when creating these programs due to a lack of government data on what services would most benefit youth leaving care.

“The government does not track outcomes of youth aging out of the system, so it is very difficult to design programming when you don’t have information about the needs,” said Jane Kovarikova, a PhD candidate at Western University and former foster child. “I think PARC deserves some credit. They are trying to fill a gap.”

“That said, the government put these organizations in a pretty impossible situation to service youth,” she said.

In Ontario, 800 to 1,000 Crown wards age out of care each year, an April 2017 report by Kovarikova notes.

Last year, PARC served 450 youth ages 15 to 29 coming from all over the GTA, and as far as Orillia and Peterborough. They had 286 active cases in the first quarter of this year alone.

Each worker takes on an average caseload of 30 youth, and keeps the cases open until the youth no longer require support, according to a written statement.

Youth can also access funding from the CAS Foundation for education, health and well-being, and emergencies.

Donovan O’Neil, 27, has been attending PARC for almost a decade and has used the centre for its group programs and to get funds for things like glasses.

He credits his support worker for letting him know about opportunities that are made available through the centre, but said that other youth may not be afforded that same access.

“Some staff call you when things are available, when other people actually have to walk in,” O’Neil said. “A lot of the summer jobs go to the same people every year.”

While CAS communications director Thompson denies any favoritism towards particular youth and says that all have equal access, he did acknowledge the limited availability for some of the programs and opportunities.

“It’s a great program with great initiative and very good outcomes, but the resources available are very slim,” he said. “It is really a (question of) resources. How many resources are available to PARC to do what they need to do so desperately?”

Irwin Elman, Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth, said he envisions, “a variety of PARC-like service programs throughout the city, the GTA or even across the province” to offer specialized support for youth transitioning out of care, both at physical locations and virtual hubs.

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However, Elman maintains that more should be done to build the foundation for independence early on, while the kids are still in foster care.

“There is little to no thought given to teaching a child life skills throughout their life,” Elman said in an email to the Star. “In fact, many of the child’s experiences in care work against independence.”