Explore the supportive relationship between a youth and her attorney.

Reveals how advocating for youth makes a difference in system change and in the advocates’ own lives. The Director of Policy and Advocacy at NMCAN and a youth advocate talk about their shared experience in testifying as expert witnesses for state legislative committees and how it created a strong bond between them.

Explore how child welfare professionals and organizations can build capacity for implementing the reasonable and prudent parent standard (RPPS) for children and youth in foster care. 

Highlights the advocacy work of state and regional youth leadership councils. Two paid regional and state youth specialists and the Texas Director for Transitional Living Services describe how including youth voice by providing them a “seat at the table” at the state capital enhances the child welfare system. All three discuss the rewards and personal impact of their work.

Tells the story of the relationship, initially forged over a shared meal, between a youth and her CASA worker. The CASA worker’s advocacy for concrete supports to meet the youth’s needs helped grow the trust in their relationship.

Examine a five-step framework that helps organizations promote youth engagement in normalcy conversations about the youth’s own care.

Learn how to create an agency organizational culture that is inclusive and knowledgeable about the unique needs of LGBTQ children, youth, and families.

Explore the efforts agencies, community collaborative organizations, and others are making to bring families, youth, and communities to the table as they strive to improve the child welfare system in this podcast. 

Learn how to support state planning and implementation of the reasonable and prudent parent standard (RPPS), which is required by the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (P.L. 113–183), to help children and youth in foster care experience normal childhood and adolescent activities. 

Tells the story of the relationship between a youth in foster care and a BraveLife peer navigator. Both talk about the personal sharing and mutual trust that have forged a connection that will last a lifetime.

Explore promising practices in pregnancy, parenting, and prevention services and view practice examples, including evidence-based programs, in-home services, and specialized units.

See how listening and relatability helped build trust between a youth and his attorney.

Underscores the importance of consistency and encouragement in trusting relationships. A Fostering Success peer mentor gave impactful advice to the youth she mentored: Stop listening to the people who don’t believe in you.

Demonstrates how showing up and listening are foundational to developing a nourishing relationship with youth. A young woman describes the constant support she and her family received from a social worker as she evolved from a youth into a teen mom and an advocate.

Recorded webinar of youth with lived expertise and child and family serving agency leaders discussing strategies to support meaningful youth engagement and integrating family and youth voices at individual, practice, and system levels.