Creating Supportive Work Environments for Youth With Foster Care Experience

Sup­port­ive Work Envi­ron­ments for Old­er Youth, a new tool kit fund­ed by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, helps work­force prac­ti­tion­ers and child wel­fare lead­ers advo­cate for young work­ers. It offers guid­ance on how to encour­age employ­ers to cre­ate more sup­port­ive work envi­ron­ments for young peo­ple with fos­ter care experience.

Down­load the tool kit

Below, Alli­son Ger­ber, vice pres­i­dent of the Casey Foundation’s Cen­ter for Eco­nom­ic Oppor­tu­ni­ty, and Cather­ine Lester, asso­ciate direc­tor of the Foundation’s Fam­i­ly Well-Being Strat­e­gy Group, dis­cuss obsta­cles fos­ter care-involved youth face when enter­ing the work­force, the impor­tance of sup­port­ive work envi­ron­ments for young peo­ple and lessons from the devel­op­ment of the tool kit.

Q: What hur­dles do young adults with fos­ter care expe­ri­ence face when join­ing the labor market?

Ger­ber: Young peo­ple with fos­ter care expe­ri­ence enter the labor mar­ket with many skills that are valu­able to employ­ers, includ­ing adapt­abil­i­ty and strong com­mu­ni­ca­tion and prob­lem-solv­ing abilities. 

They also face unique chal­lenges. It is com­mon for youth in fos­ter care to change homes fre­quent­ly, lead­ing to dis­rup­tions in school and missed oppor­tu­ni­ties for ear­ly job train­ing or skills devel­op­ment. If a young per­son has aged out of the fos­ter care sys­tem, they may also enter the work­force with­out secure hous­ing, trans­porta­tion or oth­er basic needs. The tran­si­tion to adult­hood and secur­ing a first job is a chal­leng­ing time for all young peo­ple and can be even more dif­fi­cult to nav­i­gate with­out a strong sup­port sys­tem in place.

Lester: In my own career, so many oppor­tu­ni­ties have come from net­work­ing. As they enter the labor mar­ket, fos­ter care-involved young peo­ple may need addi­tion­al help devel­op­ing and nur­tur­ing pro­fes­sion­al net­works but, once in place, these net­works will help them through­out their careers.

Q: How do sup­port­ive work envi­ron­ments ben­e­fit both young work­ers and employers?

Lester: Gen­er­al­ly, work­ers suc­ceed when they are sup­port­ed at work, feel con­nect­ed to their col­leagues and under­stand their role in the work­place. Invest­ing in sup­port­ive work envi­ron­ments helps every­one, includ­ing young peo­ple who’ve been in fos­ter care, show up and be their best selves.

Ger­ber: Sup­port­ive work envi­ron­ments pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties for employ­ees to apply and expand their skills on the job, set flex­i­ble sched­ules and match with super­vi­sors and men­tors who sup­port their per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al growth. When young peo­ple feel con­nect­ed and val­ued in the work­place, they are more sat­is­fied and like­ly to stay on the job. 

Q: The tool kit empha­sizes engag­ing young peo­ple as experts in their own expe­ri­ences and needs. Did you involve young peo­ple in this project?

Lester: Yes, young peo­ple played a crit­i­cal role through­out the process. Two youth fel­lows helped plan vir­tu­al site vis­its with prac­ti­tion­ers who have expe­ri­ence sup­port­ing young peo­ple at work. They then syn­the­sized data from each vis­it. Their involve­ment helped us make sense of what we were learn­ing and where to focus. We also includ­ed young lead­ers in a work­ing ses­sion we con­vened to devel­op key ele­ments of the tool kit.

Ger­ber: To under­stand what prac­tices child wel­fare lead­ers, work­force prac­ti­tion­ers and employ­ers can take to help fos­ter care-involved youth con­nect to good jobs, we need­ed to hear direct­ly from young peo­ple about their unique expe­ri­ences and moti­va­tions as they enter the work­force. Work­ing with young peo­ple helped us pri­or­i­tize what would be most mean­ing­ful and rel­e­vant to them. 

Lester: As we worked with young peo­ple, we adjust­ed the scope and pace of the project to allow for more co-design and part­ner­ing. In the end, both the process and the prod­uct were bet­ter for it.

Q: What sur­pris­ing insights emerged dur­ing the tool kit’s development?

Lester: I was thrilled to hear the ways prac­ti­tion­ers are already sup­port­ing young peo­ple on their work jour­neys. The way Fos­ter For­ward is scal­ing its Works Won­ders mod­el to increase youth par­tic­i­pa­tion, for exam­ple. These pro­grams are mak­ing an impact and don’t require rein­vent­ing the wheel.

Ger­ber: I agree. We learned about sev­er­al inno­v­a­tive pro­grams con­nect­ing young peo­ple with fos­ter care expe­ri­ence to employ­ment, includ­ing a Health IT appren­tice­ship pro­gram led by Ele­vance Health in Atlanta and More Than Words, a youth-run social enter­prise based in Boston. 

Q: What should child wel­fare pro­fes­sion­als keep in mind when devel­op­ing pro­grams for young peo­ple with fos­ter care experience?

Lester: Each of us has many dif­fer­ent iden­ti­ties and expe­ri­ences that shape who we are. Fos­ter care is one of those expe­ri­ences, but it is not a person’s whole or sin­gu­lar identity. 

Ger­ber: There isn’t a sin­gle sys­tem or best approach for sup­port­ing fos­ter care-involved youth on their career jour­neys. Work­ing on this tool kit showed us that we need to share great mod­els that help more youth find good jobs.

It’s also impor­tant to keep in mind that first jobs and liv­ing inde­pen­dent­ly for the first time are hard for all young peo­ple. If a young per­son doesn’t have fam­i­ly or a net­work to lean on, it is on all of us to step in and help pro­vide the oth­er essen­tial resources they need. Con­nect­ing young peo­ple with fos­ter care expe­ri­ence to a good job with a sup­port­ive work envi­ron­ment is one of the best ways to pro­mote their self-sufficiency. 

Learn the answers to fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions about fos­ter care