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Campaigns & Issues of Focus

From neglect and abuse to challenges finding employment, many foster youth who lack the stability and support of family experience a special set of difficulties throughout life.

NFYI’s goal is to ensure foster youth voices are represented when decision makers are talking about creating legislation to address issues that impact children and families in foster care. NFYI believes every issue is a child welfare issue and it is our aim to ensure foster youth voices are not left out of vital conversations. Whether the topic is racial justice, global warming, immigration, health care, or the economy, the child welfare system is impacted.

Explore issues we address:

COVID-19

COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated many of the social, public, and medical disparities in our country and strained a child welfare system that already struggled to provide adequate medical care.

Homelessness

We’re supporting former foster youth who are mobilizing in their communities to fight for the 20 percent of youth who will leave foster care and immediately become homeless.

Higher Education

A dream for many and a necessity for most, higher education remains elusive for 97% of foster youth. We’re creating opportunities to knock down the barriers to postsecondary education.

Juvenile Justice previous

Children who have been in foster care have a high risk of being incarcerated. Our programs aim to disrupt the foster care-to-prison pipeline and address the disparities and discrimination that lead to it.

National Standard of Care

A child’s zip code shouldn’t determine whether or not they get a safe, supportive, and honorable upbringing. Our work to establish a National Standard of Care will empower foster youth to thrive in life, no matter where they live or who they are.

Health & Wellness Previous

NFYI is making the health and wellness of our members one of our top programmatic priorities. Many of the children who enter foster care have complicated medical and mental health issues and lack adequate access to health services.

Voter Registration

True foster power begins in the ballot box when we elect decision makers who are strong community partners and do the work to mobilize the youth vote.

By creating leadership opportunities and training for former foster youth, we position them to inform important policy discussions on child welfare.

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The National Foster Youth Institute is a youth development organization that lifts up foster youth voices to transform the child welfare system.

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