Participate in Our Virtual Townhalls: Contribute to the 2024–25 Investigative Reviews Consolidated Report

Press Release

March 25, 2025

What is the Calling for Change report?

The Office of the Child Youth Advocate (OCYA) completes a report annually that reviews the circumstances of young people who passed away or were seriously injured and were involved with the child intervention or youth justice system.

Calling for Change highlights systemic issues and makes recommendations to improve outcomes for young people involved with child-serving systems.

The focus of this year’s report is on how systems recognize, support and intervene when young people experience trauma, grief and loss and the consequences of unresolved trauma, grief, and loss, and pain-based behaviours that can happen as a result.

This report includes the circumstances of young people from across the province who passed away or were seriously injured, ranging from 10 days old to 23 years old.

Purpose

The OCYA will be hosting virtual town hall meetings to gather perspectives from child­ serving systems about how trauma, grief, and loss are identified, addressed, barriers to addressing these concerns, and how service delivery could be supported to meet the needs of young people.

We’re seeking practitioner’s input to understand how different systems and organizations:

• Identify trauma, grief, and loss in the young people they serve
• Address/treat/support young people after these have been identified
• Explore how to improve services for young people involved with government systems who have been impacted by trauma, grief, and loss

The information shared with us will be consolidated, analyzed, and themed in a non­ identifying, non-fault-finding manner to inform the report and highlight promising practices. What is learned will be used in conjunction with youth consultations and the circumstances of the young people reviewed to help form recommendations to the government to improve systems.

Join our virtual townhalls

• April 28, 2025 – 1:30 to 3:30 pm
• April 29, 2025 – 1:30 to 3:30 pm *For those providing Indigenous-specific services and supports (both on and off Nation)

If you are interested in participating, please register by April 22, 2025.

If you are unable to attend but want to have your perspectives heard, emailed submissions can be provided by April 30 and will be included in the non-identifying consolidated theming.

RSVPs and written submissions can be sent to ca.information@ocya.alberta.ca

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