Foster Care & Extended Foster Care, In the News, Success & Impact
Advocacy Scores Major Victory for California Youth in Foster Care
Youth Law Center actively works to transform foster care and juvenile justice systems to ensure that experiences in these systems are a moment in time, rather than a life sentence, for children. Through its multifaceted work, Youth Law Center is building a world where the odds are stacked for these young people, not against them. After seven years of advocacy to elevate extracurricular and enrichment activities as key interventions for youth in foster care, Youth Law Center and its partner California Youth Connection (CYC) have scored a major victory that we hope dramatically improves the lives of California youth in foster care.
In May, the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) proposed revisions to the new foster care rates structure that were formally approved by the Legislature and Governor Gavin Newsom earlier this month. By actively engaging with youth for their ideas and feedback, CDSS has taken a significant step towards ensuring that its policies are informed by research as well as by the expertise of youth with real-life experiences in foster care.
“This is going to be life-changing for the young people who are in foster care right now,” said Kristina Tanner, statewide policy coordinator for the California Youth Connection. “They’re going to see a different system that actually truly builds them up and doesn’t tear them down.”
Click here to read more in this recent story in The Imprint.
This billion dollar investment in California’s 50,000 children and youth in foster care will stack the odds in favor of them through ensuring access for enrichment and extracurricular activities including sports and music lessons that build character, self confidence, and support healthy transitions to adulthood. The new rate structure would also allow youth in family settings to receive the same type of support they previously would only be able to receive in a group setting or institution. We hope this allows more youth to receive the support needed to thrive with their own relatives and in their own communities.
Youth Law Center is especially thrilled by this accomplishment as the initial idea for extracurricular activities as a key support to increase the number of youth in families was hatched during a convening of its Quality Parenting Initiative’s (QPI) California counties in 2017 in Sacramento on how to ensure youth in families received the supports they need for normal adolescent development. These conversations led to the 2019 publication of our special report, Closing the Extracurriculars Gap, updated and reissued in 2022, that made the case for action to ensure that young people in foster care have meaningful access to extracurricular and enrichment activities
We applaud CDSS, the Legislature, and Governor Newsom for such a bold investment in our most vulnerable youth, and for creating a rates structure that recognizes and supports the strengths of the children and families they serve.
You are invited to join Jennifer Rodriguez and Brian Blalock from Youth Law Center, and Kristina Tanner from California Youth Connection for a webinar on Wednesday, July 24 at 10:00 am PT to learn more about this incredible victory and its impact. Click here to register.