What Engages and Maintains Foster Youth Advisory Board Participation?: Exploring Participatory Competence

Background    Young people aging out of foster care are assumed to be a disempowered group with few developmental opportunities to impact the services they receive. Chafee legislation offers one example of an evolving federal framework designed to include foster youth voice in child welfare policy and practice. In recent years, youth advisory boards (YABs) have emerged state-by-state as one way of including youth voice into state systems of care. While an emerging body of literature has explored individual outcomes associated with YAB participation, less is known about what sparks and maintains this type of pro-social involvement. Utilizing Kieffer’s (1984) participatory competence framework, this study explores processes of YAB participation in one state.

Method            This qualitative study utilized in-depth, open-ended interviewing of YAB participants in a densely populated northeastern state. There, the flagship university oversees the entire YAB program. To procure a sample that demonstrated sustained commitment to YAB, participants had to be current or former members of their local YAB leadership (e.g. President) and 18 years or older. The final sample yielded 15 participants, who were mostly Black/African American, female, and 19 years old. An open-ended questionnaire was created with experts in child welfare and empowerment. The questionnaire was organized around Kieffer’s (1984) dimensions of participatory competence, a framework that helps to explain why and how individuals may develop activist identities. In-depth interviewing was conducted by the principal investigator during a single academic year. Directed content analysis of interview data was conducted using ATLAS.ti.

Results            Analysis of the data revealed three themes: 1) Recruitment: All 15 youth were initially recruited into YAB by either the adult YAB facilitator, another mentoring adult (e.g. a caseworker), or by an existing YAB member; 2) Working with, and Helping Others: All 15 youth stayed a part of YAB – in spite of the difficulties and roadblocks that they encountered through their participation – because of a desire to work with likeminded youth in an effort to “Help other children in care” and “To change the system on their behalf;” 3) Commitment: Fourteen of 15 youth in this study indicated that they intend to continue advocating for children in care even after their formal YAB participation ended. For most, this included the pursuit of a career in a helping profession like social work.

Conclusion     This exploration of participatory competence through a YAB reveals findings that mirror the healthy developmental processes experienced by civically engaged youth from general populations. Despite these findings, few models of peer-to-peer support have been developed or tested with aging out foster youth. Future research must explore participatory competence and other YAB processes with larger samples and validated survey instruments.