In matters of adoption and placement of vulnerable children, there is a lack of information to guide the decisions of the Department of Youth Protection.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
Among other things, it is essential to better document the best interests of the child who has experienced a break in ties with his family of origin – in the short, medium and long term – as well as the impacts of different life trajectories. It is also necessary to identify unmet needs. Hear and analyze the voices of everyone involved to identify the best solutions.
This is the mission of the Youth Protection Placement and Adoption Research Team (ERPAPJ). On June 2, this group of researchers affiliated with various Quebec universities and institutions received the happy news of the renewal of funding for its alliance: a grant of $621,545 from the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture, for four additional years, an increase of almost 20% compared to the previous funding.
This financial support will enable the team to carry out its research work, in collaboration with its partners in the field and the people directly concerned, with a view to developing cutting-edge knowledge and improving practices and public policies for promote the well-being of foster or adopted children.
This is all the more appreciated since the need for knowledge is one of the major elements that emerged from the first Forum Adoption Québec, an event organized by the Comité de concertation adoption Québec which brought together nearly 150 adoption actors. in Quebec last May.
Data: the key to our collective success
Another salient point that emerged from the discussions in this forum: the importance of aligning the ways of collecting information from one region to another in order to be able to draw representative portraits of the entire territory, compare regions and cross results with other socio-demographic factors.
If we want to develop our ability to track different indicators over time, we need to standardize data collection to ensure that the different existing databases communicate with each other.
In addition, access to anonymized and reliable data must be facilitated for research teams within a reasonable timeframe. All with the aim of sharing the knowledge developed with decision-makers and the general public in order to support decision-making and the critical analysis of knowledge, practices and policies.
Knowledge: to help build a permanent bond for each child
Being a “child of the DPJ” is a label that you don’t want to attach to anyone in the long term.
This is why each of our children deserves that every effort be made to define and develop a permanent life project in a family for life, whether it involves preserving or rebuilding the initial bond with the parents of origin or to make the decision to bet rather on the construction of a link in another family, which will know how to appease, secure, care for and educate the child in the long term.
This complex decision in youth protection requires detailed insight in various respects. Knowing better allows you to do better. And we owe it to our children. On their behalf, thank you for supporting the research.