The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s Foster Youth Strategic Initiative (the Initiative) aims to ensure that older youth in foster care in Los Angeles County (LA) and New York City (NYC) become self-sufficient and thriving adults. The Initiative equips transition-age foster youth (foster TAY or foster youth) ages 16 to 24 for career and college success.
To help foster youth achieve positive educational and career outcomes, the Initiative’s grantees provide a continuum of supports to help all foster TAY gain the skills and supports they need to thrive. Grantees also provide targeted supports for youth who have historically faced greater challenges, including expectant and parenting foster youth and foster youth who cross over into the juvenile justice system. Across all its work, the Initiative promotes greater alignment and coordination between foster TAY-serving systems.
This report summarizes progress made toward the Initiative’s objectives in 2020, while considering the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the lives of young people, their families, and the systems and stakeholders that support them. Although the Initiative has maintained its commitment to its goals and strategies, the pandemic has affected the ways the Initiative and grantees approach each objective and issue area as detailed throughout this report. The Initiative has rapidly responded to the urgent needs of transition-age youth (e.g., through tutoring supports and direct emergency funds to youth and families) while staying the course in its priorities.
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