Foster-Youth Centered Research and Advocacy Campaign Amplifying Harms of Institutions
Children’s Rights, New York City
2023
New Tomorrow supported Children’s Rights as a research partner for “Are You Listening?: Youth Accounts of Congregate Placements in NY.” The final report details the experiences of 80 young New Yorkers, who are former foster youth and spent time in congregate placements, vividly illustrating how these placements inflict lasting harm.
Our firm developed the methodology and led the recruitment, data collection (individual and group interviews, and an original online survey), analysis, report writing, and development of recommendations.
To ensure our research process, tools and findings would be youth-centered and would authentically amplify youth experiences, we assembled and collaborated with an Advisory Committee of Lived Experts (those with first-hand experience in congregate settings in NY) who co-developed and approved all research tools.
New Tomorrow used a rigorous analytical process for all interviews, involving line-by-line coding of themes. We used an open coding approach, which means experiences and feelings are noted and categorized as they appear, rather than searching for discrete themes limited to predetermined categories. This coding approach was pursued to minimize bias and center youth experience as much as possible. In addition, we analyzed publicly available data, survey data, and collected creative responses to include in the report.
Youth who contributed to Are You Listening? described congregate settings as highly restrictive living environments, with continual threats to their safety, profound loneliness and isolation, and lasting barriers to well-being and stability. Key findings include:
Carceral conditions: foster youth report severe limitations on phone and bathroom use, unsanitary living conditions, punitive eating restrictions, lack of adequate hygiene products for Black youth, negligent health care, low-quality medical treatments and restriction of free movement.
Unsafe conditions: from staff, a residential culture often involving conflict and bullying, and disparate treatment for LGBTQ+ youth based on their gender expression or sexuality.
Isolation: young people report feelings of isolation and loneliness with little emotional support from staff and disconnection from family and friends, compounded by restrictions on communication and visits.
Lasting harms: youth report emotional, academic and developmental setbacks and challenges. Experiences of hopelessness, lasting trauma, anger and depression, as well as poor academics in congregate placements left them under-credited and unprepared for future education and career opportunities, financial security, and independent living.
New Tomorrow is continuing to support Children’s Rights in the dissemination of the report, by developing knowledge-building materials, while also supporting the development and implementation of an impacted youth-led advocacy strategy to support policy change inline with the report’s recommendations.
Click on the image below to read the full report and recommendations to the field.
Click on the image to access the report.
