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Authentic youth engagement is an essential element of supporting children and youth involved with child welfare. As the practice continues to gain momentum in the child welfare community, researchers regularly highlight the benefits of youth engagement on safety, well-being, and permanency outcomes. 

Youth engagement is especially crucial for older youth, who are at increased risk of aging out of the child welfare system. Data from the 2023 Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System show that only 62 percent of youth ages 14 to 21 exit foster care to permanency, compared to 98 percent of children ages 13 and younger. Data from the National Youth in Transition Database further illustrate the challenges facing youth who age out: by age 21, 16 percent of surveyed youth reported experiencing homelessness within the past 2 years.

In child welfare, permanency means establishing a stable, lifelong living situation for a young person, ideally while preserving his or her family connections. Prioritizing permanency for older youth can improve opportunities in education, employment, mental health, and more, while aging out can lead to adverse outcomes. It is essential that professionals are prepared to support youth in achieving permanency through meaningful, enduring relationships with supportive adults, including through authentic youth engagement.

Featured Federally Funded Initiative

Improving engagement practice and promoting permanency for older youth in foster care starts with a mindset shift—from requirement-based engagement to authentic engagement. The Quality Improvement Center on Engaging Youth in Finding Permanency (QIC-EY) is a Children's Bureau-funded initiative dedicated to leading and advancing authentic engagement in child welfare programs and practice. The QIC-EY works proactively with a youth advisory council to help guide its work and authentically infuse its processes and products with a youth voice. Professionals looking for tools and strategies for youth engagement created in partnership with youth can start by exploring the QIC-EY's many offerings. One example is a general child welfare training curriculum created to help professionals engage youth effectively. Other trainings, including those specific to tribal nations and legal professionals, are also available.

Key Elements of Youth Engagement

The term "authentic youth engagement" refers to genuine partnership with youth that goes beyond going through the motions to fulfill a requirement. This entails investing time in building relationships with young people and holistically partnering with youth early and throughout case planning. The QIC-EY identified the following key competencies of authentic youth engagement:

• Partner with children and youth
• Use communication and listening skills
• Build trusting relationships
• Understand child and adolescent development
• Use a trauma-informed approach
• Use a strengths-based approach
• Support cultural connections
• Inform and prepare children and youth
• Advocate for children and youth

These practices take time and patience. Relationship building can be challenging for a child welfare workforce known to face high turnover and heavy caseloads. Engaging young people who have experienced trauma calls for adaptable, multilayered, and trauma-aware strategies that consider their growth, backgrounds, and personal circumstances. They may also be eager to pursue independence rather than permanency, and it's important for workers and systems to actively engage youth to help them overcome challenges and meet their goals.

The QIC-EY's Elevating Engagement framework helps reframe the way professionals have historically engaged youth, encouraging a shift from transactional to relational practices. It includes five foundational messages on ways to achieve that shift:

1. From passion to proficiency in engagement
2. From going through the motions to making moments matter
3. From waiting for the right time to early and often
4. From deciding for youth to deciding with youth
5. From guests at the table to experts with respected voices

The QIC-EY also offers several resources that outline specific, concrete strategies professionals can apply to everyday practice. This includes a recently released Activity Guidebook featuring a series of 64 activities that professionals can use to facilitate engagement with children and youth.

"Children and youth need to be seen as competent, knowledgeable experts who are partners in decision-making related to their own lives."—QIC-EY