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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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