Jane Korvairkova described her experience as a foster child from starting in a stable home with her biological family that broke down to being placed in foster care. As a ward of the province she was moved to several different homes. At 16 she petitioned to be emancipated and started her remarkable journey by working, saving, and travelling to her current successful position. Along the way she studied at the London School of Economics, enrolled at Western and is now pursuing a PhD.
Jane is currently a candiate for the provincial riding of London Fanshawe
Jane founded Child Welfare Policy Action Committee Canada (Child Welfare PAC), a group that fights for major systemic change in child welfare policy with hard numbers and cold facts. As policymakers come and go in the welfare system, the same ideas keep being tried and used and tried again, and the results remain the same.
The current system results in a 60% drop out rate from High school and a 1% rate of university graduation. Many foster children age out and enter the adult world into poverty.
Child Welfare PAC focuses on policy research based in four areas:
- Evidence-based policymaking based on impact measurement of outcomes. Without measurement, you cannot know if policies or programs work.
- Trauma-informed service for youth in care. Foster kids experience high levels of trauma; effective support needs to reflect this.
- The sealing of child welfare files to protect privacy. Juvenile offenders currently have greater privacy protections than foster kids in Canada.
- Increasing social mobility through post-secondary access. This is the only evidence-based pathway to levelling the playing field for foster kids.