Researchers at the Chaire-Réseau de Recherche sur la Jeunesse du Québec found that only a fraction of the 1,136 young people who took part in the study had jobs and a high school diploma coming out of their teenage years.By age 21, one-third of young people who have been placed under the care of Quebec's youth protection services, the Direction de la protection de la jeunesse , are unemployed and not attending school, according to the study.
Commissioned by Quebec's employment ministry and conducted by the Chaire-Réseau de Recherche sur la Jeunesse du Québec the study looked at the experiences of 1,136 people with youth protection services. Karolane Chénier-Richard isn't at all surprised by the findings. As a teenager, she dropped out of school and says she didn't get the kind of support she needed in Quebec.Karolane Chénier-Richard, coordinator of the Ex-placés DPJ collective, dropped out of school in her teenage years. 'I wasn’t in the right mindset to study and get my high school diploma,' she said.
The study also points to difficulty accessing housing as a serious obstacle for youth who have received protection services. Unable to find a place to call their own, some experience homelessness, which in turn makes getting a job much harder.