Casey to Host White House Meeting on Normalcy for Youth in Foster Care

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion and the Jim Casey Youth Oppor­tu­ni­ties Ini­tia­tive are host­ing a nation­al meet­ing on May 29 at the White House to dis­cuss ways to enable youth in fos­ter care to do more of the kinds of activ­i­ties – such as get­ting a driver’s license or tak­ing on a sum­mer job – that are often out of their reach because of lia­bil­i­ty con­cerns, but that are mile­stone expe­ri­ences young peo­ple need to become suc­cess­ful adults.

The meet­ing, ​“White House Con­ven­ing on Devel­op­men­tal­ly Appro­pri­ate Ser­vices for Chil­dren, Youth and Young Adults in Fos­ter Care,” will bring togeth­er young peo­ple who have been in fos­ter care, fos­ter par­ents and child wel­fare direc­tors and com­mis­sion­ers from across the coun­try, as well as lead­ing researchers in ado­les­cent development.

Togeth­er, they will work to devel­op rec­om­men­da­tions that will help inform our fed­er­al government’s lead­ers on how to instruct states in their imple­men­ta­tion of the Pre­vent­ing Sex Traf­fick­ing and Strength­en­ing Fam­i­lies Act’s pro­vi­sions that are aimed at improv­ing youths’ expe­ri­ences in fos­ter care. 

In the law and in the child wel­fare field, we call it ​“nor­mal­cy.” But in the day to day life of a young per­son in fos­ter care, it’s as sim­ple as being able to spend the night at a friend’s house with­out need­ing a judge’s permission. 

The goal is to make sure that while we’re keep­ing youth in fos­ter care safe, we are also enabling fos­ter par­ents to give them real chances to learn, grow and thrive as they make their way through ado­les­cence and into adulthood. 

Ado­les­cent devel­op­ment research is clear – as the brain con­tin­ues to devel­op through the teen years, young people’s expe­ri­ences dur­ing this peri­od help shape who they become as adults. To learn more about the neu­ro­science research into ado­les­cent devel­op­ment, please check out a new resource guide, which includes sev­er­al videos from the Cen­ter on the Devel­op­ing Child at Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty as well as oth­er mate­ri­als from the Jim Casey Youth Oppor­tu­ni­ties Initiative.