Engaging People With Lived Experience: Resources From Division X Technical Assistance
Build, enhance, and sustain best practices when engaging young adult lived experience experts (partners with lived experience and expertise in child welfare) using resources and takeaways from Division X Technical Assistance.
Division X of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 provided for targeted technical assistance (TA) to support the distribution of supplemental resources and services to youth and young adults in and transitioning out of foster care who may have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This TA was administered through the Division X Targeted TA contract, which leveraged expertise and partnership with youth and young adults currently in or transitioning out of foster care to offer assistance through a variety of activities, events, and services.
The following resources and webinars were produced as part of the Division X TA contract by youth and young adults with lived experience and expertise who worked alongside a robust team of writers, project managers, Center for States consultants, and other partners. The practices highlighted and successes described in these resources were collected from across the country—directly from agency staff and youth and young adults. Using these resources, child welfare agencies can better support the ongoing needs of young people currently and formerly in foster care in a number of areas, including youth and young adult engagement, financial assistance, service array development, and more.
Best practice for any engagement is that it should always be evidence-based, trauma-responsive and healing-centered, and create a space where lived experts feel safe and comfortable sharing their expertise. Lived experience experts may be engaged in a variety of forums such as town halls, advisory boards, focus groups, and more.
States and jurisdictions can also go beyond lived experience engagement to pursue lived experience expert empowerment, which allows lived experience experts to lead each step of the development process, including problem-identification, action-planning, and implementation.
For more on lived experience expert engagement and empowerment, check out the resources below:
Building on the Lessons Learned From Division X Implementation
Read a high-level overview of the Division X TA project and discover lessons learned from the implementation of the legislation’s funding and program flexibilities to better meet the needs of youth and young adults.
The Power of Youth-Adult Partnerships | Children’s Bureau Express
Explore how a lived experience expert partnered with a child welfare staff person in Louisiana to implement change and the lessons that they learned along the way.
Division X Technical Assistance: Young Adults Leading Change | Children’s Bureau Express
Discover how the Division X TA project embraced youth empowerment by recruiting a team of lived experience experts and folded them into a change management process at state agencies.
Division X Technical Assistance: A Tool for Youth Engagement and Empowerment
Learn the key considerations needed for best practices when setting up youth engagement and youth empowerment opportunities, including tips, tricks, and checklists to help guide implementation and includes resources for more information.
The following publications showcase resources and strategies to help your agency support the needs of and empower youth and young adults as they transition out of care and work toward independence:
John H. Chafee Foster Care for Successful Transition to Adulthood Program Resource List
Learn about resources that can help youth and young adults access needed support and work toward self-sufficiency.
Providing Direct Financial Assistance to Youth and Young and Young Adults
Explore the direct financial assistance and emergency financial assistance options available to young people.
Rethinking Service Array for Young People Transitioning From Child Welfare
Discover strategies to help young people and agency staff collaborate in developing a more responsive, youth-serving service array.
Tip Sheet on Responding to Youth and Young Adult Mental Health Needs
Learn tips and strategies to help promote mental health and wellness services, and see jurisdictional highlights, and links to relevant resources and tools.
Vital Document and Credit Report Tip Sheet
Explore federal requirements, helpful strategies, and templates to support young people in recording and using vital documents and credit reports and find resources and state examples to inform policy and practice around this topic.
Engaging lived experience experts has allowed many states and jurisdictions to carry out unique, innovative strategies to address the needs and concerns of those impacted by the child welfare system, thanks to their strong collaboration with those receiving services. These innovations were the focus of three webinars held by the Division X TA project:
Division X Technical Assistance Kickoff
Explore Division X Targeted Assistance Projects (TAPs) that were designed to help child welfare agencies build capacity and make sustainable improvements to policies and practices for youth and young adults in and transitioning from foster care. TAPs leveraged expertise and partnerships with youth and young adults to improve outcomes and advance equity by applying youth-centered promising and best practices.
Building Sustainable Change With Youth and Young Adults
Hear child welfare agency staff from Hawaii, Indiana, and Westchester County, New York, discuss the practices and systemic changes they made in partnership with their youth and young adults.
Division X TA: Reflections and Opportunities
Discover what was accomplished by the Division X TA project in fiscal year 2022. Achievements include application of the core principles of youth-adult partnership to projects and practices, positive youth development, and provision of youth-led, equity-centered technical assistance.
The following additional resources can help your agency better engage with and empower young people with lived experience:
Addressing the Needs of Pregnant and Parenting Youth in Foster Care: A Primer on Interagency Collaboration for Children’s Bureau Grantees
Capacity Building Center for States
Embracing a "Youth Welfare" System: A Guide to Capacity Building
Capacity Building Center for States
Methods and Emerging Strategies to Engage People with Lived Experience
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
Supporting Native Youth Into Adulthood
Capacity Building Center for Tribes
Youth Engagement Blueprint Series
Capacity Building Center for States
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