News Archive

Stuart Foundation Welcomes National Foster Youth Action Network

When the Stuart Foundation began planning for new offices at 500 Washington Street last year, the Board of Directors had the opportunity to design the space to support the implementation of the Foundation’s strategic plan. The new offices are configured to accommodate and encourage collaboration. They include office space designed as an “incubator” to provide support and stability for new organizations working in the fields of education and child welfare.

We are pleased to announce that Janet Knipe, the Executive Director of the National Foster Youth Action Network, is the first full-time resident in the Foundation’s incubator space. Janet has been a partner of the Stuart Foundation for more than a decade, as former Executive Director of the California Youth Connection (CYC). Over the coming year, the Stuart Foundation will provide in-kind support in the form of work space and equipment to this start-up organization as it establishes and builds its infrastructure.

The National Foster Youth Action Network (NFYAN) is modeled after the successful CYC program, which brought foster youth to the center of child welfare policymaking for the first time in history and empowered thousands of foster youth in California over 20 years. NFYAN was formed in December 2007 to train foster youth leaders in many states to bring their voices to child welfare policymakers in order to improve their state foster care systems. NFYAN is reaching out to foster youth and emancipated youth and collaborating with community-based organizations to help them develop foster youth leadership and advocacy programs. NFYAN builds the capacity of youth to speak out about their experiences in care and to advocate to their state government officials about the need to improve, not diminish, foster care services in their states.

Using the successful training curricula developed by former foster youth from CYC, the NFYAN’s foster youth training team trains foster youth and supportive adults and helps them create sustainable foster youth-led advocacy programs. Their leadership will improve the lives of nearly 500,000 foster youth in the United States. The Stuart Foundation is pleased to support this important work.