When it comes to system reform, the perspectives we should pay the most attention to are those who know the system best: individuals with lived experience. Our final episode of this season features two young changemakers using their experiences in foster care to help create a better reality for youth today. Eve Aaliyah Valdez is a youth activist with California Youth Connection, a youth-led organization that aims to transform foster care. Demontea Thompson is a doctoral candidate in the UCLA School of Education, a foster care researcher, and co-founder of Twinspire, a nonprofit organization that provides financial literacy to young people with foster care experience. How can we better prioritize basic needs for foster youth? What happens when we invite young people with lived experience to actively participate in research and reform processes? 

Guest speaker 1: Eve Aaliyah Valdez, Youth Activist, California Youth Connection

Guest speaker 2: Demontea Thompson, Executive Director & co-founder, Together We Inspire; Doctoral Candidate & Researcher, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools, UCLA School of Education and Information Studies 

Interviewer: Angela James, Senior Project Scientist, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools 

Among Us is a podcast by the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools. Geneva Sum is the host and Creative Director. Angela James is the Interviewer. Elizabeth Windom is the Supervising Producer. Julia Windom is the Editor. Caitlyn McAloon is the Production Coordinator. J Woodward is the Senior Producer. Among Us is produced by Windhaven Productions and Bluejay Atlantic.

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Show Notes:

• Foster(ing) Youth in the California State University (UCLA CTS report, 2023).
• DCFS (Department of Children and Family Services)
• Children’s Institute
• United Friends
• Alan Dettlaff
• Dorothy Roberts
• Chafee Grant
• THP-Plus (Transitional Housing Program Plus)
• ILP (Independent Living Program)
• CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates)
• Medi-Cal
• Self-harm crisis line

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Transition-age foster youth are young people between 16 and 25 years old who are transitioning out of the foster care system and into adulthood. Many of them are not prepared to live independently or have a strong support system to lean on. They may need help with finding stable housing or employment, paying for college, and curating supportive relationships they can rely on. Youth aging out of care could also be experiencing trauma and other challenges in addition to these transitions. We speak with Amy Dworsky and Liz Squibb about the common obstacles foster youth face as they age out of care, and actions we can take to better support youth and families.

What happens after foster youth age out of care? What supports do they need to thrive as adults?

Guest speaker 1: Amy Dworsky, Senior Research Fellow, Chapin Hall

Guest speaker 2: Liz Squibb, Senior Associate, Center for the Study of Social Policy

Interviewer: Dr. Joseph Bishop, Executive Director & co-founder, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools

Among Us is a podcast by the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools. Geneva Sum is the host and Creative Director. Joseph Bishop is the Interviewer. Elizabeth Windom is the Supervising Producer. Julia Windom is the Editor. Caitlyn McAloon is the Production Coordinator. J Woodward is the Senior Producer. Among Us is produced by Windhaven Productions and Bluejay Atlantic.

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Show Notes:

• Youth in Transition (Aging Out)
• Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth: Outcomes at Age 26 (Courtney, et al., 2011).
• Foster(ing) Youth in the California State University: Understanding the Vital Role of Campus Support Programs (UCLA CTS report, 2023).
• FUP (Family Unification Program)
• FYI (Foster Youth to Independence) Program
• Annie E. Casey Foundation
• Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative 
• Child Tax Credit

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Nationally, only 3 out of 100 foster youth graduate with a bachelor's degree by age 26. Recent legislation in some states aims to increase this number by covering the full cost of in-state college attendance. However, students with foster care experience need a tremendous amount of support beyond financial aid to thrive in college and beyond, in areas such as life skills, housing and finances, self-care, and dependable relationships with trusted adults. Scholars Kizzy Lopez and Nate Okpych join us to uplift the real barriers that foster youth face in accessing higher education, navigating college and campus life, and support programs that some campuses offer for foster youth.

How can we create better pathways for foster youth to attend college and support them through their college years?

Guest speaker 1: Kizzy Lopez, Director of Student Success, Basic Needs & Retention, Fresno City College; former Program Coordinator, Renaissance Scholars Program, California State University, Fresno

Guest speaker 2: Nate Okpych, Associate Professor, University of Connecticut School of Social Work

Interviewer: Audra Langley, Clinical Psychologist and Professor of Health Sciences, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics; Director, UCLA TIES for Families; Co-Director, UCLA Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families; Faculty Advisory Board member, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools

Among Us is a podcast by the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools. Geneva Sum is the host and Creative Director. Audra Langley is the Interviewer. Elizabeth Windom is the Supervising Producer. Julia Windom is the Editor. Caitlyn McAloon is the Production Coordinator. J Woodward is the Senior Producer. Among Us is produced by Windhaven Productions and Bluejay Atlantic.

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Show Notes:

• 3% of foster youth graduate with a bachelor’s degree by age 26 
• Foster Youth Campus Support Programs in California
• UCLA CTS report, Foster(ing) Youth in the California State University: Understanding the Vital Role of Campus Support Programs
• John Burton Advocates for Youth
• Post-Secondary Education Experiences and Attainment Among Youth With Foster Care Backgrounds
• National Research Collaborative for Foster Alumni and Higher Education
• Californians For Justice 

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Get a glimpse into the inner workings of state government and how elected officials and state agencies are working to support foster youth. This episode highlights perspectives from two different states: Jamie Burciaga, Colorado State Coordinator for Foster Care Education, and Isaac G. Bryan, California Assemblymember (55th District – Los Angeles), who will share his experiences in foster care and the legislative changes he is advocating for on behalf of foster youth.

How do supports for foster youth vary from state to state, and what promising practices can we uplift?

How can we work through bureaucratic barriers to form fruitful partnerships?

Guest speaker 1: Isaac G. Bryan, California State Assemblymember (55th District – Los Angeles)

Guest speaker 2: Jamie Burciaga, State Coordinator for Foster Care Education, Colorado Department of Education

Interviewer: Joseph Bishop, Executive Director & co-founder, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools

Among Us is a podcast by the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools. Geneva Sum is the host and Creative Director. Joseph Bishop is the Interviewer. Elizabeth Windom is the Supervising Producer. Julia Windom is the Editor. Caitlyn McAloon is the Production Coordinator. J Woodward is the Senior Producer. Among Us is produced by Windhaven Productions and Bluejay Atlantic.

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Show Notes:

• Foster Care Education in Colorado
• Highly Mobile Youth
• Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)
• Child Welfare Education Liaisons in Colorado
• Court Appointed Special Advocates
• Educational Stability Grant Program
• Colorado SB22-008
• Education Training Voucher program
• Child support arrears and Bryan’s bill
• Bryan’s bill to improve family placement rates
• Project Rebound
• Rising Scholars Network

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Foster youth tend to have a rough time in school. They are more likely to change homes and schools multiple times midyear, and can miss a lot of classes for reasons beyond their control. We spoke to foster youth advocate Dylan Tatom, who shared her educational experiences as a foster student and how she discovered her voice. La Shona Jenkins, who leads foster youth educational services for Los Angeles County, expressed the importance of cross-sector collaboration and supporting each foster student’s unique needs.

How can schools holistically support students in foster care? 

Guest speaker 1: Dylan Tatom, Youth Advisory Board Member, The Center for Fair Futures

Guest speaker 2: La Shona Jenkins, Project Director, Foster Youth Services Coordinating Program, Los Angeles County Office of Education

Interviewer: Joseph Bishop, Executive Director & co-founder, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools

Among Us is a podcast by the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools. Geneva Sum is the host and Creative Director. Joseph Bishop is the Interviewer. Elizabeth Windom is the Supervising Producer. Julia Windom is the Editor. Caitlyn McAloon is the Production Coordinator. J Woodward is the Senior Producer. Among Us is produced by Windhaven Productions and Bluejay Atlantic.

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Show Notes:

• Fair Futures Youth Advisory Board
• Annie E. Casey Foundation Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative
• LACOE's Foster Youth Services Coordinating Program (FYSCP)
• Department of Children and Family Services 
• AB 130
• Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act

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Involvement in the foster care system is not random. Racism and social inequities are both reflected in and actively shape our foster care system that’s largely comprised of Black and Brown youth experiencing poverty. Foster care abolitionist Dorothy Roberts talks about the “family policing system” that is tied to historically oppressive and harmful practices, including slavery and the carceral system, and inflicts trauma on communities of color. Tamara Hunter, a foster care systems leader for Los Angeles County, champions a shift from mandated reporting to mandated supporting, and the need for a “third option” beyond either reporting or not reporting. What is the “foster care-to-prison pipeline,” and how are Black children being funneled into it? How can we build pathways to support mandated reporters, like teachers and health care professionals, to connect families with resources?

Guest 1: Dorothy Roberts, Professor of Law and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, Director of the Penn Program on Race, Science, and Society, author of Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families–and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World 

Guest 2: Tamara Hunter, Interim Executive Director, Los Angeles County Prevention and Promotion Systems Governing Committee

Interviewer: Tyrone C. Howard, Pritzker Family Professor of Education to Strengthen Children & Families, School of Education & Information Studies; Director, Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families; Faculty Co-Director, Center for the Transformation of Schools, UCLA

Show Notes:

• Foster Care to Prison Pipeline
• Torn Apart and Shattered Bonds by Dorothy Roberts
• “53% of black children will undergo a child welfare investigation before they reach age 18.” Kim, H., Wildeman, C., Jonson-Reid, M., & Drake B., 2017. Lifetime prevalence of investigating child maltreatment among US children. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5227926/ 
• Prevention and Promotion Systems Governing Committee (PPSGC) in LA County
• Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA)
• “90% of reports made by school personnel were unsubstantiated when it came to any cases of neglect or abuse.” Fong, K., 2020. Getting eyes in the home: Child protective services investigations and state surveillance of family life. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0003122420938460?journalCode=asra  
• upEND Movement

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Let’s unpack the U.S. foster care system as we know it. Child welfare and public policy historian Catherine E. Rymph provides a lesson on the origins of foster care and its evolution into the complex system that it is today. Child welfare systems change leader Sixto Cancel shares about his personal experiences of racism and abuse while in foster care that led him to found Think of Us. How did poverty and neglect–the pretense for most foster care referrals–become conflated? What would happen if we provided families in need with resources instead of reporting them? 

Interviewer: Angela James, Senior Project Scientist, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools

Guest speakers:

• Catherine E. Rymph, author of Raising Government Children: A History of Foster Care and the American Welfare State; Dean, University of Missouri Honors College
• Sixto Cancel, CEO & Founder, Think of Us 

Among Us is a podcast by the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools. Geneva Sum is the host and Creative Director. Angela James is the Interviewer. Elizabeth Windom is the Supervising Producer. Julia Windom is the Editor. Caitlyn McAloon is the Production Coordinator. J Woodward is the Senior Producer. Among Us is produced by Windhaven Productions and Bluejay Atlantic.

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Show Notes:

• Social Security Act of 1935
• ADC (Aid to Dependent Children)
• AFDC Foster Care (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) 1962 reform
• The Stuart Foundation
• The Annie E. Casey Foundation
• Thriving Families, Safer Children initiative
• A Foster Care System Where Every Child Has a Loving Home | Sixto Cancel | TED 
• Kinship Care
• The Family First Prevention Services Act
• A Second Chance, Inc.

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Foster students face unique challenges in and out of the classroom and they deserve more of our attention. Leading education scholars Tyrone Howard, Joseph Bishop, and Angela James discuss the intersections of foster care with poverty, systemic racism, homelessness, punitive discipline, and the carceral system. Who is responsible for the well-being of foster youth? How can schools more equitably support students, no matter their circumstances? 

Host: Geneva Sum, Communications Director, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools

Roundtable:

• Tyrone C. Howard, Pritzker Family Professor of Education to Strengthen Children & Families, UCLA School of Education & Information Studies; Faculty Co-Director, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools
• Joseph P. Bishop, Executive Director, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools
• Angela James, Senior Research Scientist, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools

Among Us is a podcast by the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools. Geneva Sum is the host, Creative Director and this episode’s interviewer. Elizabeth Windom is the Supervising Producer. Julia Windom is the Editor. Caitlyn McAloon is the Production Coordinator. J Woodward is the Senior Producer. Among Us is produced by Windhaven Productions and Bluejay Atlantic.

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Show Notes:

• Our Children Can’t Wait by Joseph Bishop
• Lost Instruction Time in California Schools: The Disparate Harm from Post-Pandemic Punitive Suspensions. The UCLA Civil Rights Project. 
• Child Welfare, Public Health and Domestic Violence. The UCLA Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families.
• The California Community Schools Partnership Program
• UCLA CTS foster youth studies 
• CA SB 307 – Fostering Futures: Increasing access and improving college affordability for foster youth 

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Among Us from UCLA’s Center for the Transformation of Schools uplifts the experiences of students furthest from opportunity, and explores how systems and structures both in and out-of-school are either creating barriers or opportunities for young people.

This season, we are going on a journey together through the foster care system. UCLA researchers unpack the foster system through conversations with young people, practitioners, scholars, advocates and philanthropy to better understand how youth and families are facing barriers to thrive–and what we all can do about it.

Join us every Wednesday starting August 7th.

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In our final episode this season, we continue the shift from speaking with scholars across the country to speaking with young leaders who have decided not to wait for change to happen.

Dr. Joe Bishop discusses the importance of diversifying college campuses with Kashish Bastola, a public education, racial and equity advocate and undergraduate student at Harvard University.

Kashish sees school as a place for students to dream about their future. However, many students don’t have the privilege to dream about attending college or an Ivy League school like Harvard. His lived experiences in rural Texas ignited his passion for education justice and he has been actively advocating for change since his early high school years. The Supreme Court’s recent ruling on race-based admissions policies has fueled new conversations around college access and charged activists like Kashish with a new mission to ensure universities don’t further cement existing inequities.

Special Guest: Kashish Bastola is a sophomore at Harvard University and is originally from Texas. This year, Time Magazine published his opinion essay, Harvard's Diversity Problem Goes Deeper than Race. He is an advocate for public education and climate justice in the Gulf South. His work has included marching 400 miles from New Orleans to Houston to call on the federal government to act on the climate crisis, as well as testifying before the Texas Senate Committee on Education in support of student voice in school board governance. He also worked to create the first ethnic studies courses in his school district in Frisco, Texas. Coming from generations of Nepali freedom fighters, Kashish is passionate about democracy and community. On campus, he is involved in CIVICS, the Radcliffe Institute, the Asian American Dance Troupe, the Affirmative Action Working Group, the Harvard Undergraduate Law Review, and many more campus organizations. Check out his Instagram and Twitter @kashishbastola and his LinkedIn. 

Our Children Can't Wait is a podcast by the Center for the Transformation of Schools in the School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. Dr. Joe Bishop is the host. Elizabeth Windom is the Producer. Julia Windom is the Associate Producer. Geneva Sum is the Creative Director, and Senior Producer is Jay Woodward. Our Children Can't Wait is a companion to the book of the same name, Our Children Can't Wait. Available now from Teachers College Press and Amazon. Our Children Can't Wait is produced by Windhaven Productions and Bluejay Atlantic.

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