Web Survey of Youth Advisory Board Facilitators in the United States

Background  Youth advisory boards (YAB) are youth-led advocacy and leadership training programs for youth in and/or adopted from foster care. These boards represent the only programs where foster youth voice issues and concerns in out-of-home care, and create policy and practice changes through youth-led advocacy and organizing. Originating from a foster youth network in Ontario, Canada, the first foster youth advisory board in the United States started in California at a time when independent living policy, under the Title IV-E Independent Living Program of 1985 (P.L. 99-272), first made federal funding available to states to develop a continuum of services to support foster youth emancipating from child welfare systems in the U.S. (U.S. DHHS, 1987). In their 1999 review of Independent Living Programs, the U.S. Government Accounting Office identified 22 states with a youth-led advisory board (U.S. GAO, 1999). Since this time, the number of states with a foster-youth led advisory board has more than doubled. In spite of this growth and representation, very little is known about foster youth advisory boards.

 Methods          To shed greater light on foster youth led advocacy boards we administered a web survey to facilitators of State Youth Advisory Boards or Councils in the U.S. An email explaining the purpose of the study was sent to 50 state coordinators of a youth advisory board and the coordinator in Washington D.C. The survey questions covered 8 domains, including type and history of YAB; YAB program structure; Mission; Elected officer positions and training; Member recruitment and retention; Program domains; Advocacy and initiatives; and Benefits and challenges. Descriptive statistics in SPSS are used to describe program features.

 Results            Of the 49 states that responded to the web survey, 47 states (96%) reported having at least one type of youth advisory board (YAB). The year that a leadership board first started ranged from 1987 to 2014. All but one state with a YAB reported advocating for one of 9 types of initiatives. The most common initiatives included Sibling Bill of Rights (81%); Youth Bill of Rights (77%); and ‘Normalcy’ laws (72%). State facilitators of leadership boards identified ‘youth issues and concerns’ as representing the most beneficial component of youth advisory boards whereas recruitment of members was ranked as being the most challenging aspect of facilitating a youth advisory board.

 Implications   The findings from this study suggest that youth advisory boards or councils represent a common feature of state child welfare systems across the U.S. Though representing a common feature, they vary with respect to the timing and structure of programs; level of youth decision-making; type of advocacy, and support from state agencies. Research is needed to understand how variation in program structure shapes benefits and challenges from members’ perspectives.