In March 2008 the Assistant Commissioner of the Children’s Services Office of Youth Development (OYD) approached ACT for our assistance in developing a new youth advisory board. The purpose of the Youth Advisory Board is to offer the youth perspective on foster care policy and program issues; to advise the ACS Commissioner and other key decision makers; and to make recommendations on improving the current foster care policy and programming. Since April 2008, ACT has collaborated with OYD to design the project. The decision was made to gather a small group of youth to function as the Steering Committee and to charge them with designing the structure and mission of the Youth Advisory Board. ACT staff consulted and advised OYD staff and the Steering Committee during this process by assisting with agenda development, facilitation, outreach, preparation of documents and handouts, preparation of meeting minutes and overseeing the interview process for new members. Ultimately, ACT’s goal was to build the capacity of the Steering Committee so that they can operate independently. The Office of Youth Development is currently going under restructuring. The Youth Advisory Board will reconvene once OYD has completed its restructuring process.
Our Accomplishments
To date, ACT has provided extensive technical assistance to the Youth Advisory Board (YAB) that resulted in:
To learn more about the Youth Advisory Board, contact: Deborah Rubien ()
