Policy & Practice April 2015

spotlight on foster care

By Marlo Nash

Engaging Youth Voices: Basing Policy Changes in Daily Realities

E ach year, the National Foster Youth Institute works in coordination with FosterClub, Foster Youth In Action, the Foster Care Alumni Association and the U.S. Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth to host Congressional Foster Youth Shadow Day. About 70 members of Congress are paired with young leaders who are currently or formerly in the foster care system in their states. The event is held in May to commemorate National Foster Care Month. For the last two years, the youth have also met with high-ranking officials from the White House and the Obama Administration. “It touched my heart in a way nothing else has and, plus, who doesn’t want White House bragging rights?” said Antoinette Conway, 2014 Shadow Day participant. The goal of Shadow Day is to create a moment of opportunity for policy- makers to see the systems, for which they are responsible, through the eyes of the children whose best hope is that government investments will give them permanency, safety, healing, and support for healthy development. Conway added that the program allows the voices of foster care youth to be heard. “We sometimes feel like we don’t have a voice because we didn’t choose to be in the system, we didn’t choose our new families, or schools, or cars, or to be broke, or to ask for all the mental illness that you feel. But with Shadow Day, we choose what’s working and what’s not. We choose to have a voice, and we feel like it’s been heard,” he said. Conversations during Shadow Day serve to remind federal leaders that

Participants in the 2014 Congressional Foster Youth Shadow Day.

policies may have unintended con- sequences on the ground,” Hodge said. “For a group of people who were unaccustomed to even having any control over their own placements, it was exhilarating to be in the nation’s capital speaking to officials about what improvements could be made to the system as a whole.” Shadow Day 2014 informed a series of executive actions from the Obama Administration and from Vice President Biden, released in May and December 2014, respectively. In January, President Obama included recommendations from foster youth in his 2015 budget. And their voices were heard. The youth who participated in

meeting investment needs are not only a desired systems outcome, but must also be a part of the daily experi- ence each child has while in the care of systems. Weaving real-life stories together with the intricacies of leg- islative details can facilitate policy changes that are grounded in the day- to-day realities of the young people graduate and 2014 Shadow Day partici- pant, said that the day allows for foster youth to interact with policy makers and have a level of influence in their future. “It is absolutely vital for government agencies who design and operate the foster care system to create opportuni- ties to receive feedback from foster youth, because often times public who are living within systems. Jason Hodge, a recent college

See Youth on page 39

Photograph courtesy of National Foster Youth Institute

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Policy&Practice   April 2015