Symposium provides latest research and strategies to help emancipating foster youth "find their way"

Foster youth, particularly teenaged foster youth, often face intense loneliness after being separated from their family. The child welfare system has focused on finding permanent homes for foster youth, but the reality is, many foster kids emancipate from the system without a legal permanent home. Feelings of isolation and a sense of disconnection from family and other adults can harm these youth, and a recent study indicates that as many as half of all emancipated foster youth experience homelessness within the first five years of emancipation.

At the two-day symposium Research to Practice: Creating Permanency for Foster Youth, participants will learn the latest research on how foster youth can more healthfully transition into adulthood. Foster youth can achieve success as adults—through innovative housing initiatives, life skills training, educational opportunities, mentoring and more. These and other topics will be discussed at the symposium as strategies that can help youth achieve a sense of permanency—through lifelong permanent connections with others.

Afternoon breakout sessions will provide participants with the latest tools and practices that can help youth achieve permanency. The symposium will provide a valuable learning opportunity for social workers, independent living program coordinators, childcare workers, foster parents, mental healthcare workers, public health workers, probation officers, nonprofit agency representatives, police officers, kinship caregivers and teachers.

March 21-22: Wednesday and Thursday, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.,
at the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC), UC Davis campus.