Youth Advocacy

This session is for individuals and agencies looking to expand their advocacy and public awareness efforts in partnership with true experts – the youth who have experienced foster care, kinship care, and/or adoption. Learn the basics of development, promotion and maintenance of public speaking team(s) of adopted/foster/kin youth. Engaging youth and young adults in such a “team”… Read more

Presenters share successful Florida advocacy efforts to pass the state’s “Normalcy Bill” to create a more supportive and normative growing up experience for children and youth in foster care. The law allows foster and kin caregivers to make prudent parental decisions about activities that their foster and kin children participate in, without having to seek… Read more

Gain tools and understanding to become effective advocates, whether you are working on personal needs (case advocacy) or larger issues (class advocacy). Advocates need to develop consensus, value the principle of WII-FM (what’s in it for me), craft a coherent and achievable message, gather meaningful data, and develop an advocacy agenda that can succeed. Presenters… Read more

The following are some recommendations for making your visits with legislators as productive as possible: State your purpose.  Make it clear who you are, where you are from, and why you have asked for this meeting. Be prepared with your information and handouts. Decide ahead of time who will introduce the group and the order… Read more

by Janet Jerve, NACAC writer/editor Before you start interviewing people or gathering personal stories to help you with your advocacy efforts, you need to first answer the what, when, where, why, how and who questions regarding your advocacy work. You should first be able to answer these questions and explain your mission to prospective speakers… Read more

There are a lot of factors we can’t control about our lives. Our bodies, our family, what’s happened to us, where we are (to a certain extent). Fortunately there is a part of this equation, which is dictated by the quality of our reaction and the types of choices we make. That’s what self care… Read more

1: Choose Your Topic and Decide on an Ask The very first thing you should decide about your PSA campaign is what you’re trying to accomplish. This is what people refer to as an “ask.” After watching or reading your PSA, your audience should be inspired and knowledgeable enough to take action. Keep in mind… Read more

Adapted from Leadership 101: Developing Leadership Skills for Resilient Youth, Facilitator’s Guide by Mariam MacGregor, Youthleadership.com, 2000. Used with permission from Mariam MacGregor & Youth Leadership Development Workbook, New Light Leadership Coalition, 2001–2003. Used with permission. What character traits are essential to leadership?  Below is a starter list of leadership character qualities/skills that youth can add to… Read more

NACAC’s Community Champions Network is able to help organizations in the US and Canada start or enhance support or advocacy networks led by and serving youth people who have experienced adoption or foster care. Our services include providing technical assistance on leadership development and program planning. Each year, we offer training to youth leaders and… Read more

Are you a young person who experienced foster care or adoption? Do you want to make a difference for other young people in foster care or adoption? You can do it! NACAC strongly believes that youth who have been in foster care and young people who were adopted are uniquely positioned to be child welfare… Read more

NACAC, like many organizations, is committed to ensuring that those affected by laws and rules have a voice in shaping those policies. Engaging youth and parents in advocacy is both the right thing to do and an effective way to achieve your goals. NACAC has experienced success at state and federal levels when we’ve partnered… Read more

“We just want to do the same things as our friends! We just want to be normal!” is the battle cry of youth in foster care—backed by their caregivers—across the country. These youth want the chance to play sports, spend the night with friends, go on a class trip, or take a family vacation without… Read more

Think back to when you were leaving high school and starting college. What did you do in the summer? Attend cookouts and other events with your family? Sleep in and hang out with friends? Work to earn money for school? What about the 20,000 youth in foster care who age out each year. How do… Read more

from Summer 2011 Adoptalk “He’ll never amount to anything.” Would those words destroy or motivate you? For me, the words simply seemed true; I should be a failure. Statistics would predict that I’m in prison, but that wasn’t my destiny, was it? Who can know for certain if I will amount to anything, and why… Read more