Areas of Expertise

The Jim Casey Youth Oppor­tu­ni­ties Ini­tia­tive lever­ages its hands-on work across 16 states, the lat­est ado­les­cent brain research and direct feed­back from young peo­ple to dri­ve state pol­i­cy and prac­tice improve­ments that help young peo­ple make suc­cess­ful tran­si­tions from fos­ter care to adult­hood. Our exper­tise is ground­ed in the fol­low­ing areas:

• Ado­les­cent Brain Development
  Research on the resilien­cy and poten­tial of the ado­les­cent brain means that no young per­son is a lost cause.
   
• Authen­tic Youth Engagement
  When young peo­ple are active par­tic­i­pants in plan­ning their own lives, they devel­op lead­er­ship skills, improve their self-esteem, and form crit­i­cal social connections.
   
• Equi­ty and Inclusion
  The Casey Foun­da­tion cen­ters racial and eth­nic equi­ty and inclu­sion prac­tices across all areas of its work to ensure all young peo­ple in and tran­si­tion­ing from fos­ter care expe­ri­ence equi­table outcomes.
   
• Expec­tant and Par­ent­ing Youth
  The Foun­da­tion builds the capac­i­ty for pub­lic sys­tems to meet the needs of youth in fos­ter care, if and when they decide to become parents.
   
• Extend­ed Fos­ter Care
  Extend­ing fos­ter care ser­vices to young peo­ple beyond age 18 and doing it right helps young peo­ple and the com­mu­ni­ties in which they live.
   
• Finan­cial Capability
  Finan­cial capa­bil­i­ty — built in devel­op­men­tal­ly appro­pri­ate ways — pre­pares young peo­ple to make finan­cial deci­sions that are crit­i­cal for the tran­si­tion to adulthood.
   
• Research and Evaluation
  Self-eval­u­a­tion is nec­es­sary to mea­sure progress toward improv­ing sys­tems and out­comes for young people.