At Mockingbird’s 2023 Youth Leadership Summit, young advocates shared their stories, highlighted issues affecting young people experiencing foster care and homelessness, and proposed their ideas for potential solutions to some of these problems. These proposals will inform the requests that the Mockingbird Society makes to the legislature in the 2024 session (see their work at the 2023 Mockingbird Youth Advocacy Day on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/live/F6jZHuhv1O8?feature=share).
They covered a wide range, with each chapter across the state picking one priority to discuss:
- mental health care for youth
- improving the questions/complaints options for youth in foster care
- funding and oversight of education
- increasing the age of extended foster care to 25
- Master Leases as a housing option for youth
- increased coordination with the Office for Homeless Youth
- collecting direct youth input on their placement preference
- teaching foster youth to identify abuse and lack of safety
You can read a very short summary of the topics presented or for full information, watch the 3 hour program recorded on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sQUjv3Ol8E&feature=youtu.be