Manitoba’s foster care system is failing to prepare kids for the realities of adult life, a new youth-led report says.

The 78-page report, titled Niigan nakeyaa Oshkinawe — which means “forward youth” in Anishinaabemowin — was developed by the youth ambassador advisory squad at the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth and released Thursday.

The advisory squad, which is made up of young people from across Manitoba and focuses on the well-being of kids in the child welfare system, interviewed 17 youth to find ways to improve the transition out of the system.

The peer-to-peer project centres around the young people’s stories, laying out recommendations while exploring themes that include treatment and care, culturally safe services, education and life skills, and transitioning out of care.

The interviews found children and youth in foster care are “often set up for failure rather than success,” the report says.

Many “not only often leave the system with more trauma than they came in with, but also frequently age out without a high school education, essential life skills, family and community support systems, nor a strong sense of identity and belonging,” it says.

Several of those who took part in the project shared a common experience of “being discarded” by the system, with no resources, guidance, or safety net, according to the report.

A good transition out of Manitoba’s foster care system should begin on the day a child or youth enters the system, not when they exit it, the report’s authors say.

“The experiences young people have while in care profoundly shape how they leave it, and whether they are able to thrive afterward.”

‘Surviving, not living’

Participants said life after aging out of foster care was focused on “surviving, not living.” Social workers did not make transition plans with them or prepare them for what to expect, according to the report.

Some participants also said they were not taught basic life skills like how to grocery shop, cook, clean, get identification documents, manage money, pay bills and do taxes while in care.

Youth who are “left to navigate adulthood” without adequate support are “more vulnerable to cycles of instability, homelessness, substance use, and unemployment,” the report says.

Affordable housing is among the most urgent needs for youth aging out of care, it says. They also need stronger support networks and regular one-on-one sessions with social workers before exiting the system.

Many interviewees said “unstable, unpredictable, and often chaotic” living conditions while in care often left them unable to focus on school, while a lack of support and encouragement from their foster or group homes left them ill-equipped to pursue an education.

‘2nd-class’ family members

Participants also said they faced unfair treatment in Manitoba foster homes, with many describing feeling like “second-class members” of their foster families, and being subject to different rules and expectations than the families’ biological children.

“Underlying many of these experiences was a pervasive belief that some caregivers were motivated more by financial gain than by a genuine desire to support children,” the report says.

The report recommends stronger screening and vetting processes for foster parents, along with training to help children and youth understand their rights in the foster care system, their caregiver’s obligations and where to find support to advocate for themselves.

As of March 2025, Indigenous youth in Manitoba’s foster care system outnumbered non-Indigenous children nine to one, the youth advocate’s 2025 annual report said. The report says that all kids in care should be able to get in touch with people from their own cultural background and should be involved in their communities, as they need emotional support that goes beyond conventional therapy.

Most of the youth involved in the report also said they didn’t have consistent contact and meaningful connection with Child and Family Services workers, which many said left them feeling abandoned or forgotten, and that minimal check-ins “felt more like bureaucratic obligations than genuine care.”

They reported communication barriers with CFS workers and voiced concerns about high turnover among CFS staff, as well as social workers who “failed to take their side or advocate for them.”

The interviews revealed a strong sense that “children in care are unheard and lack any meaningful voice in decisions that affect them,” the report says.

It recommends more consistent, caring and trauma-informed contact with kids to ensure safe living conditions.

CBC has contacted the province’s Families department for comment.