Youth Leaving Care Hearings - Nov. 25, 2011

On Fri. Nov.25^th, at 10:15 a.m., JFCY lawyers will make submissions at the hearings at the Provincial Legislature, proposing recommendations for child welfare reform. 


JFCY's efforts are led by Staff Lawyer, Niamh Harraher and Street Youth Legal Services Lawyer, Johanna Macdonald.


Niamh and Johanna will be joined by young people who are former Crown Wards and kids who lived in foster care.  


These youth will be sharing their experiences and ideas for how to improve Ontario's Child Welfare system, specifically with respect to the law and issues around youth leaving care as they get older. This is the first time that Canada has had youth-led hearings on these issues.


For more info, check out the official event website, produced by youth organizers from the Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth. 


Also, check out this article from the Toronto Star, where some of the young people involved share their stories. 

JFCY welcomes our new staff lawyer Niamh

All of us at JFCY would like to welcome staff lawyer –Niamh Harraher. (Niamh is pronounced “Neave”, just in case you were wondering…). At JFCY she provides legal services directly to children and youth.  Niamh is a graduate from both the University of Western Ontario and University of Toronto, where she holds joint degrees in social work and law.

While she greatly enjoys her job, she has a life outside of work. She likes to run, although she emphasizes that she is not very good at it! One thing she enjoys when she is able to escape the office is traveling.  She has almost been everywhere in the world…I guess she needs a new hobby now!  Maybe finally she can climb that mountain which she has always wanted to do, but is afraid of.

Niamh is eager for the hot and sunny weather so she can escape to her cottage. When the weather is not so great she enjoys watching movies that star Sean Penn or Marilyn Streep. Her favourite movies are from the 80’s , which I have never heard of in my young life.  However, one recent movie which she enjoyed from my decade was the King’s Speech.

If you would like to make Niamh laugh simply tell her something completely random –newspapers tend to do that. 

All of us at JFCY are looking forward to working with Niamh.

Written by Diana Rozo

Diana is an undergrad student at York University and volunteer member of the JFCY Public Legal Education Team.