Ready or not: youth aging out of care

For most young people, the transition to adulthood is gradual. Many parents continue providing housing, financial assistance, emotional support and practical guidance long after their children turns 18.

Youth in care face the same pressures as other young people their age, except they navigate those transitions without stable family relationships, financial resources or informal support.

For youth with disabilities aging out of care, the adjustment to adulthood is intensified. Turning 18 means moving from one system to another with entirely new expectations. Many find themselves waiting for critical services — such as assessments, eligibility decisions, housing arrangements, service planning and the assignment of support workers — while facing the new demands of independence, such as ending school, applying for income supports and navigating adult health services. Delays and poor co-ordination mean youth frequently lose support before new services begin.

Over the past two years, many youth with disabilities have contacted the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth (MACY) for help navigating their transition from the child welfare system to adult supports. While each situation was unique, a troubling pattern emerged — they all experienced delayed planning, fragmented service delivery, eligibility barriers and disrupted relationships, undermining their stability at a critical moment of their lives.

Successful transitions depend on an individual’s needs and available support. Yet, MACY’s advocacy cases consistently revealed late referrals, long assessment wait times, intake backlogs and limited service capacity as common barriers. Transitions were often organized around administrative timelines rather than a child’s developmental readiness.

MACY’s advocacy cases also highlighted the extent to which Agreements with Young Adults (AYAs) were used to compensate for gaps in adult systems. Rather than functioning solely as transitional supports, AYAs often became a temporary safety net when adult disability services were unavailable.

The funding that caregivers receive from child welfare, compared to that from adult disability services, can further disrupt stability, sometimes making it impossible for a young person to remain with foster families or trusted providers after they’ve turned 18. At a stage when continuity and connection are critical, supports which foster stability are often lost.

Part of the challenge lies in the structural differences between the systems young people must navigate when they age out of care. Child welfare legislation is guided by the best interests of the child, emphasizing protection and well-being, while adult disability services prioritize autonomy, self-determination and personal responsibility. The shift between these frameworks is abrupt and destabilizing.

The risks are especially significant for youth with developmental challenges affecting judgment, memory, impulse control and executive functioning — increasing their vulnerability to experiencing homelessness, mental health challenges, addictions, unemployment and involvement with the justice system when adequate supports aren’t in place.

Experts identify this transition as one of the most difficult times in a young person’s life, as entire support networks shift and expectations change all at once. Behaviours that are often interpreted as “non-compliance” instead of a reflection of their developmental limitations, executive functioning challenges or unmet support needs. In effect, some of Manitoba’s most vulnerable young adults are expected to demonstrate independence before receiving the supports necessary to achieve it.

These outcomes, framed as personal failures, are in reality systemic deficiencies that raise important children’s rights concerns, pointing to the need for a more co-ordinated, rights-based approach to transitions.

The Child Welfare League of Canada’s Equitable Standards for Transitions to Adulthood offer a road map for change, rejecting age-based service cutoffs in favour of readiness-based transitions. Developed by youth in and from care, the standards emphasize stable relationships, continuity of care, housing, health care, education, financial security, advocacy, cultural connection and developmental supports. Most importantly, they recognize that responsibility for successful transitions must be shared across systems rather than placed solely on young people themselves. By focusing on readiness, rather than age, the standards directly address many of the barriers youth in Manitoba experience.

The critical question is whether systems in Manitoba genuinely consider the readiness of youth or whether they will continue to manufacture crisis by organizing supports around arbitrary benchmarks such as birthdays, mandates and eligibility thresholds — regardless of whether a youth is ready or not.

Ultimately, this comes down to whether the Government of Manitoba has the will to uphold the rights of young people with disabilities as they transition to adulthood. This demands a commitment to providing meaningful, individual supports which create conditions that safeguard young people’s stability, dignity and well-being as they are navigating one of the most challenging transitions of their lives.

» Sherry Gott is the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth. This column previously appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press.