ABOUT US

Since the Youth In Care Newsletter Project was created in 2000, we have provided safe and supportive programming for adolescents living in care from the Halifax region. The award-winning literacy and life-skills program offers 30 weekly sessions through the school year, focusing on a variety of important issues for youth in care.

The sessions are designed to enhance literacy and writing skills, communication about emotions and ideas, while improving employability skills and media literacy. We talk about being in government care and how it really is—not how it looks from the outside. All the participants have lived in foster homes, group homes, with a relative, or in a supervised apartment.

Writing is a key element in the Newsletter Project, encouraging the group to express our feelings, frustrations and occasionally excitement about living in care. We write about the ups and downs of life in foster care, of the meaning of family, the biggest challenges in our lives and how the Nova Scotia child welfare system could be changed and improved.

We invite along a variety of guests to share their life experiences. Over the years we’ve hosted writers (Shauntay Grant, John Demont), artists (Bruce McKinnon, Michael DeAdder), musicians (Thom Swift, John Campbelljohn) and people from the community with a special interest in youth in care.

The group also gets out to enjoy and experience our lively community. We skate at the outdoor Emera Oval, take in a play at Neptune Theatre, go to a local restaurant or find some other interesting and engaging activity.

Each spring the best of our writing and drawing is gathering into The Voice, a colourful and lively magazine that showcases the work we’ve done through the year. The magazine is distributed to group homes, government, educators, foster parents and social workers throughout the province, and mailed to interested readers across the country."

OUR MISSION

The Youth in Care Newsletter Project is a literacy and life skills program for adolescent youth in care. The program helps youth in improving writing and verbal communication skills, cooperative learning, employability skills, and community engagement, while building self-confidence and self-reliance.