In the months leading up to her 18th birthday, Chana Weiss thought she?d figured out a pretty good plan. She and a friend from her group home in Toronto would pool their monthly $1,050 cheques from the Children?s Aid Society (CAS) for youth who?ve aged out of foster care and split a basement apartment. Most importantly, she would finally be done with adults. ?They pretty much screwed me over until this point,? she recalls thinking at the time. She couldn?t wait to collect her stipend and ?get the hell out? of her group home and the child welfare system in general.
Chana?s journey through the child protection system began when she was 12, the year her father died. One of seven siblings, Chana also had an older sister who was already in foster care and four older brothers who were out on their own. Following her father?s death, her mother was unable to care for Chana and her younger sister and soon they lost their home. A Hasidic Jewish family, they turned to family and friends in their community for help, but after a few months of sleeping at other people?s houses, Chana and her little sister were apprehended by the CAS. Chana entered foster care at 13 and became a crown ward when she was 14. She lived with three different foster families over the same number of years and attended Jewish schools, where she found herself getting into trouble and skipping classes. ?I became very defiant,? she recalls of that period in her life. ?Nothing made sense to me. I was lying for no rea...