Elevating Youth Engagement: Recording Now Available

Newslet­tersThe Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion has released the full record­ing of its Octo­ber 20, 2025, webi­nar intro­duc­ing the Ele­vat­ing Youth Engage­ment (EYE) train­ing cur­ricu­lum. This resource is now avail­able for on-demand viewing.

About the Webinar

The webi­nar intro­duced the EYE cur­ricu­lum, a resource designed to sup­port child wel­fare sys­tem lead­ers, youth-serv­ing orga­ni­za­tions, com­mu­ni­ties and young adults with fos­ter care expe­ri­ence in build­ing authen­tic part­ner­ships. The cur­ricu­lum also pre­pares young peo­ple with fos­ter care expe­ri­ence to advo­cate for them­selves and oth­ers, while par­tic­i­pat­ing mean­ing­ful­ly in shap­ing the ser­vices and poli­cies that effect their lives.

Devel­oped by the Foun­da­tion’s Jim Casey Youth Oppor­tu­ni­ties Ini­tia­tive^® in part­ner­ship with Cetera, and designed by young lead­ers includ­ing Jim Casey Fel­lows, the EYE cur­ricu­lum is root­ed in ado­les­cent brain sci­ence. It includes eight inter­ac­tive ses­sions that sup­port orga­ni­za­tions in:

• Strength­en­ing youth-adult part­ner­ships through coach­ing and shared decision-making;
• Pro­mot­ing well­ness, self-care, and advo­ca­cy lead­er­ship among young peo­ple with fos­ter care experience;
• Apply­ing ado­les­cent brain sci­ence to bet­ter under­stand the impact of fos­ter care and the impor­tance of lead­er­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties; and
• Cre­at­ing tai­lored youth engage­ment action plans at the com­mu­ni­ty or orga­ni­za­tion­al level.

The webi­nar pro­vid­ed an overview of the curriculum’s three tracks — for adults, young lead­ers and inter­gen­er­a­tional groups — and dis­cussed how the con­tent was devel­oped with young peo­ple. Pre­sen­ters also shared prac­ti­cal exam­ples from Jim Casey Ini­tia­tive sites and detailed what facil­i­ta­tors can expect from the cur­ricu­lum materials.

View the EYE Curriculum

Pre­sen­ters:

• Alex Lohrbach, senior asso­ciate, Fam­i­ly Well-Being Strat­e­gy Group, the Annie E. Casey Foundation;
  
• Aman­da­lyn Stallings, Jim Casey Fellow;
• Jamie Ben­nett, exec­u­tive direc­tor and co-founder, Cetera;
• Antoinette Ruck­er, asso­ciate youth engage­ment con­sul­tant, Cetera;
• Sam Gar­man, senior youth engage­ment con­sul­tant, Cetera;
• Kath­leen Holt-Whyte, senior youth engage­ment con­sul­tant, Cetera; and
• Meghan Arri­go, senior youth engage­ment con­sul­tant, Cetera.

Access the Curriculum

The full Ele­vat­ing Youth Engage­ment cur­ricu­lum is avail­able for free on the Casey Foun­da­tion web­site. The mate­ri­als are intend­ed for orga­ni­za­tions aim­ing to deep­en youth-adult part­ner­ships, com­mu­ni­ties devel­op­ing youth engage­ment strate­gies, and young peo­ple seek­ing to grow their lead­er­ship and advo­ca­cy skills.

Those who missed the live event are encour­aged to watch the full record­ing above and explore the train­ing materials.

To learn about future webi­na­rs, sub­scribe to CASEY’s Child Wel­fare News