The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s Foster Youth Initiative (the Initiative) aims to promote the well-being and future success of young people who have experienced foster care in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York City, and nationally.[1] As the Initiative’s evaluation partner, Child Trends assesses progress toward the Initiative’s goals and disseminates learnings to inform the work of the Initiative and its partners. As part of this evaluation, Child Trends convenes an Evaluation Advisory Board (the Board) composed of young people with lived experience in foster care from Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New York City. The Board plays a critical role in interpreting evaluation findings and developing recommendations grounded in lived experience.
The 2025 Board members include Daniel Bisuano, Cheyanne Deopersaud, Abby Rubtsova Henderson, Regginald Holloway, Nilsa Morales, and Tonia Ramsey. The Board is supported by a Child Trends intern, Ogechi Ukaeje, who also has lived experience in foster care.[2] Board members commit to at least one year of participation and attend a minimum of four meetings focused on building community, introducing the research process, interpreting qualitative and quantitative data, and preparing to write briefs. Critically, Board members bring unique perspectives shaped by their personal experiences, strengthening the relevance and usefulness of the evaluation’s findings and recommendations.
As members of the 2025 Evaluation Advisory Board, we chose to focus on career development and employment because these issues consistently shape the opportunities, stability, and long-term success of young people with foster care experience. We reviewed findings from Child Trends’ evaluation activities and reflected on the barriers youth face when trying to explore career interests, access job opportunities, and/or secure sustainable employment.
In this brief, we interpret those findings through our own perspectives and lived expertise. Each section highlights the challenges we discussed as a Board, as well as the insights that guided our recommendations for how the Initiative and its partners can better help youth build meaningful, long-term careers. We also include creative elements (a poem and video) to illustrate the themes that emerged in our conversations. Together, our goal is to elevate youth voice and encourage systems to create pathways that allow young people with foster care experience to thrive in the workforce.
We identified three areas where philanthropic investment could improve career development outcomes for youth with foster care experience:
- Fund career services and supports that focus on relationships and mentorship first, building confidence for youth with foster care experience before providing more individualized career supports.
- Fund organizations to build youth skills in their areas of interest, with an emphasis on providing foster youth with skill-building and career opportunities outside of the child welfare system.
- Leverage the Foundation’s relationships and connections to create a portal with job opportunities for youth with foster care experience.
Footnotes
[1] This initial section is largely verbatim from the introductory sections of the brief authored by a previous Evaluation Advisory Board: https://www.childtrends.org/publications/transitioning-foster-care-lived-experts-recommendations
[2] Amy McKlindon, Alyssa Liehr, and Karlee Naylon provided Child Trends staff support throughout the development of this brief.
Suggested citation
Ukaeje, O., Bisuano, D., Deopersaud, C., & Henderson, A. R. (2026). A roadmap to career services that meet foster youth where they are: one size doesn’t fit all. Child Trends. DOI: 10.56417/6144w5944y