Recent news

Yesterday, two bills were introduced in Congress to help homeless and foster youth transition successfully to higher education and receive the financial aid and other supports they need to complete their degrees.

Each year our youth advocates in Youth Fostering Change and Juveniles for Justice do amazing work focused on one reform issue, and this year was no different. We’re so excited to share this video featuring YFC’s final project and policy recommendations to empower youth in dependency court hearings.

As any high schooler can tell you, finding paid work experiences in today’s economy can be a real challenge. But youth with disabilities in the juvenile justice and foster care systems face a particularly difficult road.

In the past decade, America has become incredibly different than it was in the years before.

Large numbers of youth leave the child welfare and juvenile justice systems without their vital documents or they are not able to maintain them due to housing instability. Not having these records makes smoothly transitioning to adulthood difficult, if not impossible.

As summer comes to a close, many teens around the country are wrapping up one of the first steps in their “career pathway”: a summer job. These short-term positions are not just a pastime; research shows that summer employment reduces dropout rates, improves long-term employment prospects, and decreases the chance of future involvement in the criminal justice system.

The revival of strong mandatory sentencing schemes matches the “tough on crime” approach touted by the Trump administration. While mandatory minimums negatively impact all individuals involved in the criminal justice system, youth particularly face long-term consequences.