Youth Resources
New Yorkers For Children works with youth who have child welfare system involvement in New York City to help improve their economic mobility, knowledge and skillsets, and overall wellbeing.
New Yorkers For Children occupies a unique position within New York City’s child welfare landscape. As the non-profit partner of ACS and with strong ties to all of the foster care agencies, we have a deep understanding of the needs of the foster care population. Meanwhile, our independence allows youth to view NYFC as the “missing puzzle piece” in the system, a safe space that fosters community and instills confidence in young adults to pursue autonomy.
We have compiled a list of resources to share further information about the child welfare system, its disproportionate impact on Black and Brown youth, innovative organizations working to improve the system, and advocacy efforts to change its structural inequalities.
Get in Touch
Please email [email protected]
Data Illustrating Impact of System
Black and Brown youth are disproportionally impacted by the child welfare system. Below please find trusted sources of data outlining both the long-term trends in foster care and child welfare, and its impact on different communities and demographics across the city.
Administration for Children's Services Mandated Data Reports
Think of Us, How We're Failing Youth Transitioning Out of Foster Care
Citizens' Committee for Children of New York's Data Resources
New York Advisory Committee to The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
Examining the New York Child Welfare System and It's Impact on Black Children and Families
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Data Related to NYC Child Welfare System
Council on Children & Families Statewide's Data Resources
Pioneering Organizations
NYFC pilots innovations that leverage our agile financial capacity and education expertise to create the most efficient and effective ecosystem of support for youth. Below are organizations with which NYFC works with to make the city’s child welfare system more dynamic and innovative.
Mercy First
MercyFirst is a not-for-profit organization that supports children and families in New York City and Long Island. The agency provides community-based prevention, family foster care, group homes for children in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, and short-term residential interventions, MercyFirst helps at-risk individuals overcome challenges and build better futures.
At The Table
At the Table pairs students in foster care with long-term, 1:1 tutors and advisors who meet weekly virtually. The program helps students overcome educational barriers by offering support with homework, organization, test prep, and college-related tasks like applications and financial aid. Tutors build lasting relationships, providing continuous guidance until graduation and beyond. Each full-time tutor works with 15-17 students, ensuring consistent support throughout their educational journey.
New Alternative for Children
NAC's mission is to provide innovative high quality services in support of birth, foster, and adoptive families caring primarily for medically complex children. NAC's mission includes children with severe physical, emotional, and behavioral challenges and developmental disabilities.
The Alex House Project
The Alex House Project envisions a world in which low-income families benefit from comprehensive supports, and young mothers, in particular, successfully transition into parenthood, with access to parenting training, higher education, and employment.
Jeremiah Project
Jeremiah program is a national organization with a mission to disrupt the cycle of poverty for single mothers and their children, two generations at a time.
Day One
Day One is a New York organization dedicated to addressing teen dating violence. It educates, organizes, and advocates for young people at risk of or experiencing intimate partner violence. Day One empowers youth to identify ways to stay safe and work towards a future free from abuse, emphasizing involvement in supporting their mission.
YouthNPower
YouthNPower is a collective that includes young people age 18 to 25 with lived expertise in the child welfare system and coming from over-surveilled communities, working with researches, policy advocates and organizers over 2 years to explore, document and uplift the power, needs, and desires of young people transitioning out of foster care as young adults in New York City.
Inspiring Futures
Inspiring Futures strives to improve high school and college graduation rates for child welfare and juvenile justice involved youth by offering free mental healthy therapy, educational services, and by training support systems. The program emerged from surveys and interviews with 550 college students and graduates with foster care involvement about their educational journeys.
Not On My Watch
Not On My Watch mission is to educate, equip, engage, and empower women and girls to lead successful and safe lives.
The New York Council on Adoptable Children
COAC is a non-profit organization committed to serving our community by working with individuals living with HIV, as well as strengthening post-adoption, post-guardianship, and kinship families.
Adoptive and Family Foster Coalition New York
The Coalition unites foster, adoptive and kinship care families, giving them a voice and providing support, information and advocacy. By fostering communication and collaboration between families, agencies and concerned citizens, we seek to ensure the stability, well-being and permanency of all children.
Changing the System
NYFC supports the NYC child welfare system's efforts to evolve into a family serving system, rather than a family separating system. We recognize NYC's intention to transform and meet families with supportive services so that far fewer children are removed from families. NYFC advocates alongside these organizations to achieve this vision:
Fostering Youth Care Success Alliance
The Fostering Youth Success Alliance is a statewide advocacy group that promotes responsive policies and programs that offer young people with a foster care background every opportunity to set higher expectations and achieve their goals.
New York City Family Policy Project
NYC Family Policy Project's mission is to explore and build evidence - through original research, data and policy analysis - for the policy visions of parents and young people impacted by the child welfare system in New York City.
New York State Cash Alliance
The New York State Cash Alliance is a collaborative space to advance guaranteed income (GI) and cash-related advocacy in New York.
Fair Futures
Fair Futures is a youth-led advocacy movement and coalition of 100+ organizations and foundations advocating for all young people in New York City's foster care system to have access to the long-term, comprehensive supports they need to achieve their potential.
Citizens' Committee for Children of New York
Citizens' Committee for Children of New York analyzes and publishes data on child and family well-being while engaging with New Yorkers through participatory, community-based research to address systemic inequities. They co-create and support coalitions and campaigns at the city, state, and national levels, using research and civic engagement to influence policy and budget decisions.
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