Government launches service to help young people transition from state care to adulthood
The transition support service is expected to help about 3000 young people over the next four years, she said.
Oranga Tamariki has been tasked with building the service, which will employ 175 new specialist staff and make 60 supported accommodation facilities available by year four.
There will be $25m allocated to supporting young people to live with their caregiver beyond the age of 18, and $9m to help the transition from care to independence, up to the age of 25.
Ms Martin said young people who have been in the care of youth justice systems have had a difficult start to life and it was wrong that support for them ended when they turn 18.
When you consider some children taken into state care are then abused while in state care, when you consider the cruelty of simply dumping these young people when they are 18 to survive on their own, when you consider the role the state has had in the crafting of those damaged lives, it is justice that the Government is now paying to help these young lives transition into independence.
Why it has taken this amount of time to recognise the role the state has in these young lives is the real question here.
Imagine how many lives blighted by state abuse would have been saved if they had been able to access this transition funding rather than being dumped straight onto the street?
It’s is infuriating that change for the most vulnerable is still happening at a shuffle speed rather than bold strides.
