Many students have concerns about the affordability of college, which may interfere with their potential success. However, foster care alumni have unique needs when making the transition into postsecondary enrollment. Compared to completion rates for the general population, postsecondary education outcomes for youth with foster care experience lag…

Foster Care Alumni (FCAs), or individuals who left the foster care system either by aging out, adoption, or returning to their family of origin, typically make up a small, fragmented portion of the student body at higher education institutions. This group is increasingly referred to as Foster Scholars on higher education campuses. FCAs tend to…

New York City has never been a particularly easy place for teenagers and young adults to break into the workforce. Even during the boom years of the 2000s, the city's unemployment rate for teens between the ages of 16 and 19 hovered just under 20 percent. By the end of 2010, it had risen to 40 percent. As shocking as these numbers are, however,…

Most youth development programs strive to promote thriving, but scientific inquiry into "how" they achieve this aim is rare and often complicated by nuanced program structures and delivery. Across two studies, we explored how one thriving indicator, having a sense of purpose in life, may be cultivated by a statewide 4-H program. In Study…

This study examined self-concept, resiliency and social support in 107 children and youth placed in foster care in New York City. Of the children and youth, 55 were placed in family foster care, while the remaining 52 children and youth were placed in a kinship foster home. Significantly more of mothers of the kinship foster care children and…

Out-of-school time (OST) programs represent a vital opportunity and resource for learning and development for children and youth. Given the potential of city-level OST initiatives to support participation, and against the national backdrop of inequitable access to quality OST programs for older youth from disadvantaged communities, The Wallace…

Objective: This qualitative study examined stakeholders' perceptions of the safety of youth ages 12 and older living in congregate care facilities within the New York City foster care system. The study explored the youth's physical safety, the safety of their personal belongings, the physical conditions of congregate care settings, and the…

This handbook is for youth placed in foster care through local departments of social services (DSS) (not the juvenile justice system). The handbook was written for youth entering foster care for the first time as well as youth already in foster care, in the hope that youth entering or already in foster care will find the information helpful. The…

Participation in Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs reduces aggressive and antisocial behavior (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011). Theoretically, SEL programs foster social and emotionally intelligent youth through improving children's social and emotional skills, defined in the present study as the ability to…

This qualitative research study identifies protective factors that foster resilience in disconnected youths (ages 16-18) who are participants in Project ReConnect, an alternative education program in New York City. Observations, participant observations, interviews, and focus groups were utilized to collect data from ten participants. Findings…

In response to growing concern about the increased disconnect between youth and their outdoor environment, this study examines how nature-based citizen science experiences with a local animal (American eels) influence urban adolescents' (high-school students) sense of place in a US city. The juvenile American eel is a unique animal due to its…

Every day in New York City, between 90,000 and 100,000 young people, almost all of them Black and Latina/o, must show up to school thirty to forty-five minutes before their first class begins because they attend schools with metal detectors and scanners. School administrators and policymakers have accepted this scenario as part of Black and…

This series of papers brings together distinguished experts writing on the use of class action litigation to reform public child welfare systems. It is an effort to tease out of four decades of experience in this work, the factors that increase the likelihood that litigation will result in successful system reform. This publication is an outgrowth…

The present paper reviews literature on older youth in foster care with a focus on those older youths in residential. We aim to examine what has been written in the scholarly literature about this specific group. Literature was reviewed from the last decade on the problems these youths face and potential solutions for them in the program…

Several instruments previously validated for use in school library research were tested for their appropriateness in the context of public libraries' summer reading programs for youth. The researchers were also interested in whether the connection between perceived competence in one's own information skills and perceived competence in one's own…