Affirming People and Welcoming Places: Examining Supportive Relationships and Contexts for Youth Impacted By Structural Oppression

Social isolation among youth in the United States is at record high levels, especially amidst the social, political, and mental health ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic (Almeida et al., 2021; Courtney et al., 2020). These experiences are further compounded for young people who face marginalization, including being unhoused, living with mental health concerns, interacting with disciplinary or carceral systems such as the child welfare or juvenile legal systems, or who hold other (and often intersectional) marginalized identities (e.g., people of color, individuals in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer [LGBTQ] communities, people with disabilities). As a result of isolation, marginalization, and oppression, many young people face adverse psychological outcomes, including low self-esteem, loneliness, earlier and higher rates of substance use, and overall reductions in mental health and quality of life (Almeida et al., 2021; Marshal et al., 2009; Matthews & Adams, 2009; Mays et al., 2007; Osgood et al., 2010; Sapiro & Ward, 2020).

Case and Hunter (2014) coined the term adaptive responding to refer to the "capacity to circumvent, resist, counteract, and/or mitigate the psychological consequences of oppression"(p. 259). Despite enduring marginalization, oppression, and failure from systems that were meant to support them, young people find ways to adaptively respond, including seeking settings and relationships of safety and comfort. Long-lasting relationships that exist outside of service system contexts, or permanent connections, have been identified as an essential factor associated with wellbeing among youth who are child welfare involved, particularly for those aging out of foster care. This concept has been taken up by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) as a key component necessary to support youth in developing the resources and networks required to obtain and sustain housing stability in the long-term. Both populations of youth-and those at the intersection-have often been removed or separated from their natural support systems and experience system-involvement as minimizing their choice and control around accessing supportive relationships and environments that they will need throughout their lives. In addition, peer relationships are often constrained for youth navigating instability and/or system-involvement. Minimal research has been done to explore the ways that these populations of youth find, navigate, and nurture permanent connections in their lives.

In this roundtable, we discuss the defining characteristics of supportive relationships and contexts for youth impacted by structural oppression, as well as participatory ways of engaging young people in demanding, creating, transforming, and expanding supportive relationships and settings. We discuss examples including using game-based and mapping methods to engage with young people in permanent supportive housing, identifying the approaches and practices of supportive adults in the child welfare and juvenile legal contexts, building networks of informal peer and adult support for youth transitioning out of or divesting from systems of care, and fostering collective efficacy through democratized, youth-centered interventions. We conclude with a discussion of key principles and practices for bolstering youth-affirming cultures in social work practice and research, in turn democratizing social work research and U.S. society more broadly.