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It is bittersweet to announce that this will be our final Division X Learning Corner! Our strength is in our diversity, and we are as diverse as our pets! We love to start every meeting with an icebreaker—it has really helped us all build relationships and rapport. Take a look at the image below and think about “which Division X pet are you today?”
A Message of Thank You
As the project ends today, September 29, 2022, we would like to thank the Children’s Bureau staff for their continued leadership, guidance, support, and commitment as we centered lived expertise and equity into our technical assistance efforts in a post-pandemic world.
Thank you to all the states, jurisdictions, Tribes, youth, and young adult leaders who informed, participated, and presented in Division X events, peer learning circles, listening sessions, and coaching and consultation sessions. Together, we planned and executed more than two-dozen national and regional events and are wrapping up more than 10 projects in five states.
Thank you for your partnership and commitment to youth and young adults in and transitioning from foster care. We see you and appreciate you—the work you do matters! As you check out the rest of this Division X Learning Corner newsletter, please join us in reflection and gratitude.
In Case You Missed It: Previous Division X Learning Corner Newsletters
The Division X Learning Corner offers the child welfare field information on Division X Technical Assistance (TA), including notable events around areas of interest as well as hot topics and the experiences of our consultants and Regional Office members who are currently partnering to support states, Tribes, and territories in better serving youth and young adults in, and transitioning from, foster care, and so much more! If you missed our previous newsletters, you can check them out on our website here!
Division X TA Team Reflections
The Division X TA project has been an incredible, challenging, and rewarding year of co-creating and co-designing technical assistance strategies, national and regional events, and products all while leading and centering lived expertise, equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. For some of us, this work was new; for others, this work was an opportunity to deepen our skills.
What is true for all of us is that this opportunity was a life-changing experience. We learned the importance of communication, the power of partnership and support, and the importance of cultivating psychological safety in our work. We pulled together a word cloud of the skills and knowledge that we learned and gained over the last year.
One Division X consultant, reflecting on her experience, noted that one of the lessons learned from the project was that “you can be uncomfortable and still be safe.” Going outside of our comfort zone provides an opportunity to grow and learn. We have grown as coaches, peer supporters, facilitators, trainers, leaders, youth engagement specialists, and team members. Growing our understanding of what it means to center equity in service delivery, programming, and support has empowered us as individuals and as a team, as well as the states, tribes, and jurisdictions with whom we partnered. We have built coaching, project management, and administrative skills and, as this chapter closes, we are looking forward to building on all that we have learned.
We are eagerly looking forward to seeing how we can expand and strengthen the involvement of people with lived expertise in federal, state, and local agencies. We thank you for your collaboration, willingness, and commitment to working to ensure youth and young adults successfully transition out of care and into adulthood and we invite you to reflect on this journey, all you have learned, and the opportunities to come!
Hot Topic – Diverse and Intersecting Identities and Experiences
In this newsletter, we are focusing on youth and young adults with diverse and intersecting identities and experiences, particularly those who identify as Black, Indigenous, or Persons of Color (BIPOC) and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, and Two Sprit (LGBTQIA2S+).
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It’s important to support the identity formation of all youth, including those in and transitioning from foster care. This requires supporting their positive sense of self, including providing information on spirituality; cultural, racial, and ethnic identity; sexual and gender identity; self-esteem; and more. Check out the Child Welfare Information Gateway’s list of resources to support identity formation.
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Intersectionality is the interconnected nature of social categories, such as race, class, and gender, creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage (Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, n.d.). While youth and young adults in and transitioning out of foster care share similar experiences such as placement disruptions and family/sibling separation, it’s important to understand that youth with multiple and intersecting identities face unique barriers and challenges including stigmatization, bias, racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, adultification, and more.
Below are some, insights, including relevant information and resources, about youth and young adults in and transitioning from foster care, focused on those with diverse and intersecting identities and experiences:
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BIPOC Of youth provided with independent living services, 57.5% were identified as BIPOC (fiscal year 2021 National Youth in Transition Database [NYTD] Snapshot).
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Children and Youth Who Have Experienced Commercial Sexual Exploitation Often referred to as commercial sexual exploitation of children and youth (CSEC-Y), commercial sexual exploitation involves recruiting, harboring, or trafficking of a minor by force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Sixty percent of the CSEC-Y population has a history with the child welfare system (as cited by Voices for Children, 2020).
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Crossover Youth or Youth With Dual Jurisdiction/Status Youth with dual jurisdiction/status are in the care of the child welfare system and the juvenile justice system. Fifty percent of youth and young adults have experienced dual system involvement (National Center for Juvenile Justice, 2015).
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Immigrant and Refugee Youth and Those With Undocumented Status Annually, 5,000 migrant children enter the foster care system (National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, 2019).
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Pregnant, Expectant, and Parenting Youth Of those who complete the NYTD survey, 14% of males and 30% of females at age 21 reported having children within the past 2 years (NYTD Data Brief #7, 2019).
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Youth Who Experience Homelessness and Who Run Away It is estimated that a third of youth in foster care may have run away from care at some point (Gov, n.d.) It is estimated that 50% of the homeless youth population have spent time in the foster care system (National Foster Youth Institute, n.d.).
Check out our April Division X Learning Corner newsletter for information about youth with mental and behavioral needs. The June newsletter focused on LGBTQIA2S+ youth, and the August newsletter focused on youth with disabilities.
It is important to involve, engage, and empower youth and young adults with diverse and intersecting identities and experiences to better understand their needs, strengths, challenges, and barriers faced to transform policies, programs, services, and, to this end, build human centered, culturally responsive systems and promote well-being and resiliency. To break cycles of oppression for diverse populations and to cultivate the healing and support that all youth involved in the child welfare system deserve, consider:
- Committing to innovative policies and supporting strength-based and developmentally appropriate approaches for diverse youth and young adults
- Diversifying the workforce
- Centering equity and sharing power by engaging people with lived expertise
Division X TA – Target Assistance Projects (TAPs)
The Division X TA team is wrapping up TAPs in five states. We have been focused on cross cutting population group and topic areas including:
- LGBTQIA2S+ youth, youth with dual jurisdiction, pregnant/expectant and parenting youth, youth over 18, youth who are unhoused, homeless, or at risk of homelessness, youth considering or enrolled in postsecondary education.
- host home models, facilitating partnerships, campus-based support, peer navigator models, extended foster care, resource mapping, co-design, housing vouchers, and engaging and partnering with youth and young adults.
The TAPs team included Children’s Bureau’s Regional Office staff, state staff, community stakeholders, service providers, advisory board members, and youth and young adults. From start to finish, the TAPs team had less than 90 days to plan and implement several cross-cutting strategies including enhancing and improving service array and increasing partnership and awareness. We facilitated listening sessions and partnership meetings and developed trainings and research memos, all alongside states, their partners, and youth and young adults. This was a tremendous opportunity, and we all learned a lot in the process.
We will be sharing more details at our upcoming event in October 2022. Subscribe to stay in the loop.
Division X TA Products
Division X TA team is nearly finished developing several new high-quality, evidence-informed resources that will help address some of the pressing needs of child welfare agencies in serving older youth and young adults.
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We recently posted “Building on the Lessons Learned from Division X Implementation” on our webpage here! This resource provides child welfare professionals and youth and young adults with a high-level overview of Division X and highlights the opportunities and lessons learned from the implementation of the Division X funding and program flexibilities.
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Other products coming soon include:
- “Structuring Direct Payments” (tip sheet)
- “Reimagining Service Array for Youth and Young Adults” (publication)
- A Youth Empowerment toolkit
- Resource lists providing information about new and existing benefits for youth and young adults
Each Division X product will be available for youth, young adults, and child welfare agencies. The products will provide resources and strategies and will promote learning from Division X.
We are excited about these products and can’t want to share them with you!
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