Youth Engagement - Voices of Lived Experience - Center for States - Child Welfare Capacity Building Collaborative Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Voices of Lived Experience Logo inside Speech Bubble

Capacity Building

CENTER FOR STATES

Youth Engagement

Discover stories about authentic youth engagement at the practice, peer support, and system-change levels. Hear youth and young adults describe how their voices were heard while in foster care and the supportive role of caseworkers, leaders, attorneys, and peer mentors. Youth explain how engagement and trusting relationships gave them the support and empowerment they needed during this critical developmental period.

Find youth engagement stories that best meet your needs by selecting filters on the left and use them with activities from the discussion guide to build understanding and connections between people as you advocate, inspire, support, recruit, train, and coach individuals and teams.

Showing 1 - 2 of 2 Voices of Lived Experience Stories
Video

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.

Video

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.