Cangrands Rally for grandchildren,
Woman's crusade for children
Grandmother, founder of advocacy group plans demonstration for kinship families
Dave Brown, Citizen Special
Published: Monday, November 17, 2008
Hundreds of Ontario grandmothers are making plans to symbolically abandon thousands of children on politicians' doorsteps next week. It's part of an attempt to focus public attention on a need for some serious rethinking.
There are an estimated 20,000 kinship families in the province. Those are people who have taken in abandoned or abused children who happen to be relatives, and 68 per cent of them are grandmothers. Because they are related to the children, they don't qualify for the benefits given foster families. They struggle by on meagre pensions, and save the province millions in child care payments.
The plan is to collect abandoned dolls, name them after real abandoned children, and abandon them. They want dolls that show signs of having been used and abused, like their grandchildren were.
Betty Cornelius, who won custody of her abandoned grandchild, created Cangrands after learning she was not eligible for financial help because she is a relative.
Betty Cornelius, who won custody of her abandoned grandchild, created Cangrands after learning she was not eligible for financial help because she is a relative.
Peter Redman, Canwest News Service
It's the brainchild of Betty Cornelius, founder of Cangrands. Since the Bancroft-area woman appeared on CTV's W5 last year, telling the story of the political abandonment of children and their grandmothers, her organization's membership has exploded. It now has 35 chapters in five provinces, and 600 members.
She calls Cangrands "the club none of us wanted to join." When her grandchild was abandoned by drug-addicted parents, she stepped in. It cost her $28,000 in legal fees to get court-ordered custody of the child. Although she was putting her comfort on the line, she was the only person in the case paying her own legal bills.
After her win, she qualified for $231 a month under Ontario's Temporary Care Assistance (TCA) program. Since she couldn't call a relative a foster child, she signed on as a foster parent, hoping to earn some badly needed extra money.
A 12-year-old girl arrived, with a flat monthly care rate of $1,500, plus a $350 clothing allowance, plus $150 for her birthday, plus $350 for Christmas.
Mrs. Cornelius is a believer in "my roof -- my rules," and when told she would have to allow the girl to smoke in the house and be sexually active, she got out of the fostering business. Then she learned that changes were being made to the TCA program and she faced losing it, and dental and extra health benefits. She knew she wasn't alone, so she started organizing. She found support through Ontario's New Democratic Party and a bill appeared on the floor at the legislature. It would have drawn new definitions for a foster child. Being related wouldn't be such a great penalty. Liberals closed ranks and it was defeated.
Then she saw International Children's Day (Nov. 20) approaching, and started organizing the doll campaign. She has particularly targeted area MPP Madeleine Meilleur, the minister of community and social services. On Children's Day, she's calling for demonstrators at the minister's constituency office and at the main entrance to Queen's Park.
The campaign asks people to get involved by showing up at 11 a.m. at the offices of all provincial politicians and asking questions like 'Why is our child-protection system so anti-family?'
Last time I checked, in 2003, there were 5,400 children's group-home beds in Ontario and the province paid an average daily rate of $182 per bed. That crosses $1 billion every three years. Those beds were all occupied, because the system was crying for more.
FOr the rest of the story go HERE
Cangrands Rally on Nov 20th at 11 am
Madeleine Meilleur, MPP for Ottawa-Vanier
237 Montreal Rd
Vanier, ON K1L 6C7
Ottawa
In protest of Min Madeleine Meilleurs funding cuts to Grandparents who take in their grandchildren due to unfortunate circumstances where there own children can't or won't take care of them.
Having Grandparents step in instead of Children's Aid is an unmistakable act of kindness within the kinship community, cutting funding towards the kinship program was an uneconomical move by the Liberal government of Ontario.
The cost to taxpayers towards the kinship program in pennies compared to the full state run system forced onto the children from broken families.
We are in desperate need for protesters on Thur, Nov 20th, please if you have time spend an hour showing support for our kinship program funding to be reinstated.
--
Thank you,
Sara Landriault
stay at home mom
President, National Family Childcare Association
www.careofthechild.com
www.incomesplitting.org
landriault@ripnet.com
Grandmother, founder of advocacy group plans demonstration for kinship families
Dave Brown, Citizen Special
Published: Monday, November 17, 2008
Hundreds of Ontario grandmothers are making plans to symbolically abandon thousands of children on politicians' doorsteps next week. It's part of an attempt to focus public attention on a need for some serious rethinking.
There are an estimated 20,000 kinship families in the province. Those are people who have taken in abandoned or abused children who happen to be relatives, and 68 per cent of them are grandmothers. Because they are related to the children, they don't qualify for the benefits given foster families. They struggle by on meagre pensions, and save the province millions in child care payments.
The plan is to collect abandoned dolls, name them after real abandoned children, and abandon them. They want dolls that show signs of having been used and abused, like their grandchildren were.
Betty Cornelius, who won custody of her abandoned grandchild, created Cangrands after learning she was not eligible for financial help because she is a relative.
Betty Cornelius, who won custody of her abandoned grandchild, created Cangrands after learning she was not eligible for financial help because she is a relative.
Peter Redman, Canwest News Service
It's the brainchild of Betty Cornelius, founder of Cangrands. Since the Bancroft-area woman appeared on CTV's W5 last year, telling the story of the political abandonment of children and their grandmothers, her organization's membership has exploded. It now has 35 chapters in five provinces, and 600 members.
She calls Cangrands "the club none of us wanted to join." When her grandchild was abandoned by drug-addicted parents, she stepped in. It cost her $28,000 in legal fees to get court-ordered custody of the child. Although she was putting her comfort on the line, she was the only person in the case paying her own legal bills.
After her win, she qualified for $231 a month under Ontario's Temporary Care Assistance (TCA) program. Since she couldn't call a relative a foster child, she signed on as a foster parent, hoping to earn some badly needed extra money.
A 12-year-old girl arrived, with a flat monthly care rate of $1,500, plus a $350 clothing allowance, plus $150 for her birthday, plus $350 for Christmas.
Mrs. Cornelius is a believer in "my roof -- my rules," and when told she would have to allow the girl to smoke in the house and be sexually active, she got out of the fostering business. Then she learned that changes were being made to the TCA program and she faced losing it, and dental and extra health benefits. She knew she wasn't alone, so she started organizing. She found support through Ontario's New Democratic Party and a bill appeared on the floor at the legislature. It would have drawn new definitions for a foster child. Being related wouldn't be such a great penalty. Liberals closed ranks and it was defeated.
Then she saw International Children's Day (Nov. 20) approaching, and started organizing the doll campaign. She has particularly targeted area MPP Madeleine Meilleur, the minister of community and social services. On Children's Day, she's calling for demonstrators at the minister's constituency office and at the main entrance to Queen's Park.
The campaign asks people to get involved by showing up at 11 a.m. at the offices of all provincial politicians and asking questions like 'Why is our child-protection system so anti-family?'
Last time I checked, in 2003, there were 5,400 children's group-home beds in Ontario and the province paid an average daily rate of $182 per bed. That crosses $1 billion every three years. Those beds were all occupied, because the system was crying for more.
FOr the rest of the story go HERE
Cangrands Rally on Nov 20th at 11 am
Madeleine Meilleur, MPP for Ottawa-Vanier
237 Montreal Rd
Vanier, ON K1L 6C7
Ottawa
In protest of Min Madeleine Meilleurs funding cuts to Grandparents who take in their grandchildren due to unfortunate circumstances where there own children can't or won't take care of them.
Having Grandparents step in instead of Children's Aid is an unmistakable act of kindness within the kinship community, cutting funding towards the kinship program was an uneconomical move by the Liberal government of Ontario.
The cost to taxpayers towards the kinship program in pennies compared to the full state run system forced onto the children from broken families.
We are in desperate need for protesters on Thur, Nov 20th, please if you have time spend an hour showing support for our kinship program funding to be reinstated.
--
Thank you,
Sara Landriault
stay at home mom
President, National Family Childcare Association
www.careofthechild.com
www.incomesplitting.org
landriault@ripnet.com
Labels: Cangrands, childcare, grandchildren, Liberal Ontario
posted by Sara @ 10:24 AM
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