Fostering Youth Educational Success (YES)
Objectives and Needs: This project promotes the educational success of foster youth in Cumberland County, North Carolina, home to two major military bases—Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base. Cumberland County has a high level of family mobility because of poverty and military connections. The majority of foster youth is African American and experiences multiple placements, leading to changes in school assignment. The county has strong youth groups and child-and-family-serving partnerships, and agencies use a family group decision-making model called “child and family team meetings” to engage youth and their families in planning. These assets make it possible to adopt a strategy of developing youth leadership and system-of-care collaborations to stabilize educational placements and plan for youth permanency. The project’s objectives are to develop a planning infrastructure, data-driven policies and procedures, and curricula for graduate students and professionals.
Planned Services: At North Carolina State University, the Center for Family and Community Engagement and Department of Social Work plans to work with Cumberland County youth and family organizations, Social Services, Schools, Court, and Mental Health. The services build upon the Center for Family and Community Engagement’s extensive experience with family group decision-making, co-training by youth/family and agency partners, system-of-care collaborations, and community-based evaluation. The Center is well-known nationally and internationally for its publications on family engagement and offers a solid platform from which to disseminate findings and influence practice and policy developments.
Service Area: Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina; Cumberland County, North Carolina
The project described is supported by Grant Number 90CO1075/01 from US Department of Health & Human Services.
Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the US Department of Health & Human Services.
