Youth, Family, and Community Engagement

The child welfare system alone cannot keep children safe, find them loving and permanent families, and help them become successful young adults. In recent years, this formerly closed system, hampered by strict confidentiality requirements, has begun to open its doors and welcome the opinions of youth, families, and communities. This input serves to improve services to individual children and families and ultimately improves outcomes. However, even with this newfound openness, the child welfare system has not yet developed adequate capacity to support and engage foster youth and their caregivers so that their experiences can translate into system-wide improvements to the policies and procedures that govern their lives.

I did not know the entire State Senate would be voting on a story about what happened to me in foster care. I consider it an honor; it’s very exciting. But I also consider it a duty. I’m a foster youth advocate; it’s what I’m supposed to do. One of my favorite mottos for making change is that it only takes one pebble to ripple a whole lake.

Zairon Frazier in "Celebrating 20 Years of Success: California Youth Connection Annual Report 2008"

Our Investments

We assist organizations that amplify, organize and support the voices of key stakeholders. To support youth, family, and community engagement, we invest in organizations that:

Provide opportunities for current and former foster youth to advocate for themselves and those in similar situations.

• The foster youth mantra, "nothing about us without us", reminds us that youth must be involved in the decisions affecting their lives including placement moves, educational goals, transition planning and bringing their voices to policy discussions.

Engage birth parents and foster parents to improve the child welfare system.

• Family engagement is equally important to ensuring good decisions.  Biological parents, foster parents, and kinship providers have insight into their own needs, vulnerabilities and strengths. They provide understanding about how policy and regulation affect their lives.

Support trained advocates for foster children.

• We support change at the system-wide level by investing in the statewide CASA programs in California and Washington.

Support partnerships between community organizations and public agencies in efforts to improve the child welfare system.

• Schools, faith based organizations and community members provide both watchful eyes for abuse and neglect and support for children and families. Clear, accessible information is needed to inform and engage communities in the lives of vulnerable children.