Away from Home examined the experiences and perspectives of young people who recently lived in institutional placements in foster care, revealing shocking patterns of abuse, isolation, neglect, overmedication, and traumatization in environments that were unloving, punitive, and prison-like. Twenty-two states have committed to ending the need for congregate and group care placements for foster youth following the publication of the study, shifting the national conversation around the institutionalization of youth and demonstrating the power of lived experience data to shift mental models and drive systemic change.
- Cited in an investigation of the four largest companies that institutionalize youth
- Cited in legal action against state of Nevada for subjecting children with disabilities to unnecessary institutionalization
- Deep Dive with people with lived experience to reduce institutionalization of foster youth for behavior needs
-Annie E. Casey Foundation, Allegheny County, PA - Upcoming research exploring kin as alternative to group home placements
-Casey Family Programs, State of Indiana
- Convened National Foster Care Month Roundtable
-White House, Office of the VP, Administration for Children and Families. - Congressional briefing elevating the voices of lived experts
-Senate Foster Youth Caucus, Congressional Foster Youth Caucus, Congressional Adoption Caucus - Expert testimony on the experiences of foster youth in congregate care facilities
-U.S. Congress - Exploring bipartisan legislation to address abuse in congregate care facilities
-Leadership of Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth
- Influenced The New York Times including foster youth in an interactive media opinion piece on the insitutionalization of youth.
The Center for Lived Experience is a participatory research and policy initiative launched in 2022 to create proximity at scale between decision-makers and people with lived experience in child welfare. It conducts best-in-class research to address ecosystem knowledge gaps, builds feedback loops to elevate this data, and establishes proof points for lived experts to formally engage in bipartisan policymaking and collaboration. The Center is laying the groundwork for permanent structures through which people with lived experience can co-create a child welfare system that truly meets the needs of youth and families.
- Collaboration in Journey to Success to improve outcomes for youth who experience foster care
- Annie E. Casey Foundation
- Raikes Foundation
- Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
- Doris Duke Charitable Foundation - 50+ meetings with Congressional staff
- U.S. Congress - Collaborative leadership moving the Foster Youth and Driving Act forward
- Joined closed-door roundtable to support the Biden Administration’s priorities for transition-age youth
-Domestic Policy Council, White House Office of Public Engagement, Secretary Becerra of HHS
- Codifying participatory and trauma-responsive research practices
- Released Aged Out 2.0 with updates and policy considerations for the current moment.
- Technical assistance to partners in recruiting and supporting research participants
- People with lived experience in foster care
- Conducted a study on the experiences of teenagers during Child Protective Services (CPS) investigations
- Funder collaborative2.14 - Research work on the intersections of racial equity, disability rights, and justice systems
- Coalitions of research organizations
- Supporting the Child Welfare Ombudsman to leverage lived experience voices to recommend state policy reforms.
- State of Colorado - A team of lived experts presenting learnings to drive statewide reform
- State of Washington
- 2.7 Signed an Amicus brief on the Indian Child Welfare Act referenced in oral arguments
- U.S. Supreme Court
- Launch event brought together 300+ people
- Congressional staff and government, philanthropic, and agency partners. - Hosted a town hall on the administration’s strategic priorities for child welfare White House, Office of the Surgeon General, Children’s Bureau
Our Lived Experience Network connects 38,000+ individuals, including former foster youth, biological parents, and kin caregivers. These lived experts inform everything we do, from providing the data and insights through research, to co-designing tools such as Virtual Support Services, to using their voices to shift the conversation with federal and state leaders.
The Network allows us to leverage robust, growing, dynamic datasets to inform policy and practice across the ecosystem. We are now inviting partners to inform how we maximize the value of this resource while continuing to innovate data-protection and privacy standards.
- Building content database, data warehouse, dashboards to maximize the value of this data for functional data usage
- Learning about the impacts of the Check For Us campaign and subsequent data
- 44 states, Washington D.C., ecosystem partners - Strategic sharing of lived experience data
- States, nonprofits, and systems change organizations
- 3.3 Expansion of Direct Impact through Virtual Support Services
CA, GA, Greater Boston Area
- 1,772 individuals access critical resources
- 95.8% having initial needs resolved
- 3,361 engagements with Virtual Support Services staff
- Average response time is 8 business hours - MicroCash grants to better understand the needs youth and families
- CA, Greater Boston Area
- Collaboration on SOUL, a lived-expert driven fourth permanency option for foster care
- Jim Casey Youth Fellows, Annie E. Casey Foundation