No path forward: staff reacting to closure of Craigwood Youth Services

Staff are reacting Tuesday to the news that Craigwood Youth Services is closing its doors.

"There just really wasn't a path forward, that was sustainable," said Craigwood’s Interim Executive Director, Claudia den Boer, citing a shift in the way that the ministry is planning to deliver intensive services, to children and youth.

For seven decades, the organization served trouble youth and their families from across the province. 

“A matter of funding challenges hitting up against changes that are unfolding over the last while in terms of how services, to youth and children are being delivered, and that has resulted in a situation where we find it difficult to find a path forward,” explained den Boer.

OPSEU/SEFPO Local 166 President and BPS Corrections Chair, Jonathan Guider, said drastic understaffing caused by lack of funding, resulted in lowered standards for youth and staff, compared to other youth jails run by the province.

“The wages that we have just weren't sustainable,” explained Guider. “Three years of post-secondary education is the required, and the starting wage is under $20 an hour, there's lots of responsibility, violence and shift work.”

Much of Craigwood’s funding comes from the province's Ministry of Children, Community, and Social Services (MCCSS), as well as through agency referrals, primarily from children’s aid societies.

CTV News has reached out to the MCCSS for comment, and they issued the following statement:

Craigwood has informed the ministry of their decision to close their youth justice facility as a result of operational challenges they were facing. The ministry has not cut funding to Craigwood. In 2024-25, we provided $2.6 million in funding to the facility to operate the youth justice unit, which included one-time funding of $1.09 million to respond to their requests for additional operational funding and sustain necessary system capacity. In addition, the ministry provided one-time funding of $1.13 million to the agency in 2023-24 to again respond to their requests for help with more operational funding and to sustain necessary system capacity.

The ministry continues to work closely with our partners on how they can best provide their services to support youth. This year we are investing $11.6 million to address increased operational costs at agencies which support youth in the justice system.

With the closure of Craigwood, there are three (3) remaining secure custody/detention facilities and two (2) open facilities for youth identifying as female in Ontario.

On Friday November 8, 2024, three youth were transferred from Craigwood to Donald Doucet Youth Centre.

The ministry recognizes the importance of youth in custody maintaining connections with their home communities. That is why the ministry supports continued connections to the community and family through the Connected to Communities program which helps mitigate financial barriers to visitation, along with investments in video calling capabilities to allow youth to connect with family, guardians, elders and positive mentors.

Guider, a Craigwood employee for the last 24-years, told CTV News, conditions deteriorated in the last few years.

“Craigwood used to be 200 employees five, six years ago, we've slowly lost home, by home,” continued Guider. “Those youth now are staying in hotels, and they're hospitalized or they're in jails elsewhere in the province, or they're living on the streets, or they're living in a home that's toxic, and they needed to have a placement.”

According to Guider, the remaining three youth at the youth detention section of Craigwood were transported to Sault Saint Marie last month, leaving staff scrambling to inform families, some of whom, did not get a chance to see their children before they were transferred over 600 kilometres away.

Craigwoods catchment area spanned across Ontario, often times requiring chartered flights to transport troubled youth between detention centres down to the facility in Aisla Craig. A process that Guider says cost thousands of dollars.

Craigwood’s head office is at 520 Hamilton Rd. in London, and it has a community treatment home on St. George Street, near Oxford and Richmond streets.

Den Boer said Craigwood Community Ventures, a separate entity, will continue operating.

She said the agency explored alternate paths including partnerships and mergers, but there wasn't anything that was going to put the organization into a better long term, sustainability position.