Session: Foster Youth Advisory Boards in the U.S (Society for Social Work and Research 20th Annual Conference - Grand Challenges for Social Work: Setting a Research Agenda for the Future)

Background and Purpose: In this symposium, we describe findings from three studies of foster youth-led advisory boards in the United States. Although youth advisory boards exist with teenagers in the general population, we focus on foster youth-led advisory boards for several reasons. First, foster youth-led advisory boards have existed for well over 3 decades in the U.S. and limited information exists about their role in informing child welfare policy and practice. Second, the fact that few empirically supported interventions exist to support the transition that foster youth make to adulthood suggests a need to take a closer look at programs that are designed by and with current and former foster youth. Third, given that independent living and child welfare policy currently requires states to include foster youth in case and transition planning, understanding how youth advisory boards engage youth and develop strong partnerships has important implications for child welfare policy and practice. In this symposium, we take a closer look at foster youth led advisory boards through the lens of those individuals with direct involvement in them.

 Methods:  In this symposium, we present results from three studies. Two of the papers address a fundamental question: What are the goals of youth advisory boards and how are they structured to address these goals? The proposed papers take two slightly different approaches to this question. One paper describes the results of a web survey of adult facilitators of youth advisory boards in 50 states and the District of Columbia while the other describes an in-depth qualitative study of adult facilitators of a youth advisory board in a Midwestern state. The third study uses in-depth interviews and field observations of current youth members of a youth advisory board in an Eastern state.

 Results: The results from the web survey underscore the ubiquity of foster youth-led advisory boards in the U.S., and draw attention to similarities and differences in program structure across states. Findings from the in-depth interviews of facilitators describe a theoretical model of resistance and healing. The third study of youth members participating in a state youth advisory board in an Eastern state reveals six themes which capture the essence of civic engagement and empowerment among youth leaders.

Conclusions and Implications: The concepts of foster-youth led advocacy and youth-adult partnerships are relatively new in child welfare. Despite the legislative frameworks of the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999, the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 and the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act of 2014, decision-making for youth in child welfare systems has been largely dominated by adult agendas and frames of reference that can silence the input of foster youth. The findings from this collection of studies nevertheless reveals the ways in which the context of youth-led advocacy in child welfare has gained momentum over time and is changing the dialogue about civic engagement and participatory processes.