Our latest interview for our Foresight Initiative is with Sixto Cancel, the founder and CEO of Think of Us and the Center for Lived Experience. He grew up in, and aged out of the child welfare system and now works to transform foster care and child welfare on a national level. Sixto spoke with us about his organizations’ experiences during the pandemic, his goals for the future of foster care, and the importance of lived experience.

Today we feature a podcast interview for our Foresight Initiative with Claire Wyneken, President and CEO of Wyman Center, a 100-year old youth development organization that provides support and programming to youth in St. Louis and around the country. Claire talked with us about how youth today believe that the people running the country are not looking out for them, and what Wyman is doing in response, by focusing more on young people’s well-being, deepening and expanding partnerships in the community, and inviting young people to become official stakeholders in the organization.

Today we feature an interview with Bridget Alexander, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Waking the Village, which provides housing and support to Sacramento’s homeless community, parenting youth, and their children. In these Foresight Initiative conversations we are learning how experts in the field of child and youth services faced pandemic challenges, innovated and adapted their services in response, what they learned from the experience, and what changed and will stay changed.

Friendly reminder! There’s still time to support today’s young people! We have established a Foresight Honorarium Fund for those participating in focused conversations with us about their experiences over the last two pandemic years; what did and didn’t work for them, and what recommendations they have for the field. Help us honor their lived experience and collaboration with your contribution.

Transgender and nonbinary youth are under attack; states have passed legislation encouraging discrimination against them and targeting their access to health care. 94% of LGBTQ+ youth say the current political discourse in the country is negatively impacting their mental health. But, there are glimmers of hope—having just one accepting adult in their life reduces transgender and nonbinary youth suicide attempts by one third. Today we provide a brief review of some of the recent literature and reporting on this issue, and a recommendation for a free webinar on helping transgender and nonbinary youth feel more seen, supported, and heard.

The breadth of literature over the past two years of the pandemic has been truly monumental, and trying to digest it all, nearly impossible. Understanding that, we are highlighting some of the most effective and informative research we’re reading; curating noteworthy analysis, comprehensive data, and compelling findings from the experts in child and youth services who have their finger on the pulse of the field’s ongoing pandemic challenges.

Youth Catalytics’ Training Director Cindy Carraway-Wilson argues that the workforce shortage and subsequent crisis in the child and youth care field can be ameliorated by the professionalization and certification of child and youth care practitioners.

Today we bring you the first of many updates from our newest project: The Foresight Initiative. We are sharing feedback from experts in the child and youth services field who have taken our survey and described their experiences on managing the challenges of the last two years. We hope you’ll add your voice to the conversation.

Today’s Voices from the Field is a first-hand, behind-the-scenes account of the complicated and contentious actions of local school board meetings that have, like many across the country, become cataclysmic during the course of the pandemic.

Youth Catalytics’ Director of Training Cindy Carraway-Wilson has decades of experience leading professional development trainings in the child and youth care services sector. Today we highlight one of her upcoming educational opportunities: The Child and Youth Care Foundations Course.

Listen to our new Voices from the Field podcast with Steven Jella, Associate Executive Director for San Diego Youth Services. We discuss how his organization went from, “90% in-person services to 90% remote services in just 5 days” at the start of the pandemic, and how he has focused on preserving his workforce over this past year.

Today we launch The Foresight Initiative: an inquiry into how our field is rising to meet this moment of extraordinary disruption and uncertainty. Starting with a short survey we will learn what adaptations have worked, what practices have lost relevancy, and what innovations are being planned. Learn more about our new initiative and please take our survey!

The difficult realization at the core of our services for minor victims of trafficking is the acknowledgement that however nefarious and immoral the actions of traffickers may be, they are successful at meeting the needs of youth through their own manipulative and exploitive means. The only way we can compete with them is to demonstrate to victims, from the very first encounter, that we can help them in a compassionate and therapeutic manner.

There are some people who, for 20 or 30 years, have been doing direct service, on the ground seeing how families or communities transform or change, seeing their needs every single day — and a lot of times those people don't get the opportunity to influence how things go, where the money is spent, how programs are formed or how they're evaluated.

How about training young people to investigate issues and resources in their communities? How about teaching them how to collect and fact-check information, provide background and context, summarize it all for their peers — and do it in a way guaranteed to make adults take note?

Almost anyone who knows someone in middle or high school sees signs of the stress that is part of adolescence; I’ve talked with young people who cut, whose hair fell out in patches. But in these pandemic months, our stress has been as self-contained as everything else

As Covid-19 gripped the nation last year, the philanthropic sector greatly boosted its support for charitable and community organizations, and nonprofits can take a range of actions to encourage that generosity to continue.

Over the last many years, I’ve helped lots of nonprofits with strategic planning, and so have an enormous appreciation for what’s involved in creating a plan that’s not merely done for planning’s sake — but one that is tracked, adjusted, and evaluated in real time.

I’ve been involved with Youth Catalytics for many years, and I continue to marvel at its resilience and relevance even in extraordinary times such as these. One of the things I most admire is …

Yes, this has been a hellish last year of isolation, political insanity (almost literally), and economic struggle, but now — and even if it’s a bit premature — I can speak to how I am emerging. The fact is, I’m a better person