EYAB
Projects & Accomplishments
Throughout their term, EYAB members work together to create change and give back to the community. Here is what each EYAB term has been able to accomplish:
In 2006-07, HEY responded to a need for more employment opportunities for former foster youth by restructuring the EYAB to a three-member internship employment model which allowed for a greater number of work hours (40 hours per month; previous years had 10 hours per month). The goal of the restructured EYAB was to address transitioning youths’ needs for meaningful youth leadership opportunities as well as real employment experience which would enable their full participation as decision makers and advocates.
Lanette Scott lead HEY’s efforts in planning for two of HEY’s three Foster Care Month events by coordinating the Youth Leadership Awards Night and Voices of Youth events.
Dylan Ruggles has created a comprehensive Foster Youth Housing Toolkit which provides concrete resources for foster care youth seeking to make informed, viable decisions regarding their own housing. The toolkit includes expanded information on such vital topics as: housing options available for emancipated youth in the Bay Area, best practices for conducting housing searches, and how to maintain tenancy. The manual also provides details on how to obtain transitional housing including Section 8 and emergency shelter. The manual will soon be posted on this website, where it can be easily downloaded by current and former foster youth and their advocates.
Though our changed model was successful we have decided to develop EYAB into an Expert Trainer Model. The Expert Trainer Model is a team of emancipated foster youth trainers who train as expert consultants. These youth will develop and implement a training program to inform organizations and groups that do not necessarily work in the foster care field on the unique situation of current and former foster youth, and how to best cooperate with and serve them. Like HEY, the EYAB would serve to strengthen systems through promoting awareness and improving cross-sector communication.
The first two years paved the way for the third term to really
become more cohesive as a group. The goal was that throughout
the EYAB term the members work together on an advocacy project
that would really establish the EYAB as a cohesive group as
well as help former foster youth. In 2005-2006 EYAB’s
term project was the Emancipation
Resource Guide.
San Francisco Emancipation Binder Resource was a collaborative
project between: HEY, the HEY EYAB, the San Francisco Human Services
Agency, the San Francisco Independent Living Skills Program, San
Francisco Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, and United Way of the Bay
Area. The goals of this project were to:
- Draw on the leadership, expertise and knowledge of former
foster youth to create a resource binder for youth who are emancipating
from foster care;
- Provide a meaningful leadership opportunity for former foster
youth;
- Provide tools and resources by creating and distributing emancipation
resource binders to youth graduating from San Francisco’s Independent
Living Skills Program in 2006; and
- Pilot a collaborative product and examine the possibility
of institutionalizing the program within the San Francisco Independent
Living Skills Program.
Each resource binder included:
- A CD with the youth’s essential documents (birth certificate,
social security card, etc.)
- A comprehensive, youth-friendly resource guide, organized
by service category
- A datebook/calendar
- An address book
- Gift cards to support a youth’s transition (i.e. Target, Kmart,
Safeway)
In the second year of the program, and after the original group had set some
guidelines for the program, individual EYAB members began to really get themselves
out in the community. Members began to represent HEY at various events
and by doing so increased HEY’s visibility and raised public awareness of the
needs of foster youth in the San Francisco and Bay Area community.
EYAB is created with the help of HEY staff and board members. Five former foster youth are selected and begin to work together to frame what a group of youth could bring to HEY. HEY staff and board wanted a true partnership with youth so that our policy direction came directly from the people who have experienced and continue to experience the foster care system. This pilot year was successful in establishing the EYAB as a program as a real youth and adult partner program at HEY.
In addition to their term accomplishments as a collective
group, current and past EYAB members have contributed to:
- Campaign
for Safe Transitions
- Child Welfare Redesign process
- Foster Youth Success Initiative
- Panel discussions about foster
youth
- Prop 63—Mental health services expansion meetings
|
