Approximately 20,000 young adults in foster care transition to adulthood and independent living each year. A majority of these young people want to pursue postsecondary education, but they are less likely to enroll in postsecondary institutions than their peers who have not interacted with the child welfare system. To address this gap, federal and state programs have been implemented to address barriers and provide supports to pursue a college degree. In 2001, as an amendment to the Chafee Foster Care Independence Act, the Education and Training Voucher (ETV) program became the first federal program aimed to assist young adults in or formerly in foster care with their postsecondary educational needs. This report uses administrative data from 10 states to describe how ETV programs operate, who receives ETV vouchers, how and when they are used, and the educational outcomes for young adults who receive ETVs compared with their peers who do not receive ETVs.

Early adulthood is a critical life stage for education, employment, relationship formation, and reproductive health, but young adults’ experiences in these areas are highly varied. Using averages to describe youths’ experiences may miss meaningful differences that could alter their developmental trajectories. Understanding these trajectories—and their implications for youth of varying races, ethnicities, and genders—can help researchers, practitioners, and policymakers support young people’s development and ensure greater well-being into their adulthoods. This brief summarizes findings from a new report which reveals different employment pathways taken by young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds through the use of trajectory analysis—a person-based approach that allows clustering people into meaningful patterns based on their employment earnings and the fringe benefits they receive.

Mentoring is integral to apprenticeship programs and plays a critical role in the success and retention of young apprentices. Mentors can help apprentices navigate the workplace, develop a combination of essential and technical skills, and deepen their engagement. In turn, mentors find value in developing leadership and management skills and sharing organizational insights. This fact sheet highlights the importance of mentoring in youth apprenticeship programs. It illustrates mentor roles and the ways mentors teach and advise. Also, the fact sheet provides some reflective questions mentors can ask as well as real-life challenging examples that mentors can use.

Youth apprenticeship is a strategy for building a more inclusive economy by creating affordable, reliable, and equitable pathways from high school to good careers and college degrees. It is a structured work-based learning program that connects the educational needs of students with the talent needs of industry. This state policy playbook lays out several actions that can foster high-quality youth apprenticeships. Some actions include establishing new mechanisms to engage employers; reducing logistical, regulatory, and financial barriers to employer participation; and leveraging existing resources while identifying new ones.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) seeks applications for funding under the FY 2022 Supporting Vulnerable At-Risk Youth and Youth Transitioning Out of Foster Care program. This solicitation supports the establishment of pilot demonstration program sites to develop, implement, and build replicable treatment models for residential-based innovative care, treatment, and services. The primary population served by these pilot programs will include adolescents and youth transitioning out of foster care who have experienced a history of foster care involvement, child poverty, child abuse or neglect, human trafficking, juvenile justice involvement, substance use or misuse, or gang involvement. Eligible applicants can provide services to youth and young adults up to and including age 25. Grant funding of $600,000 will be made available to 6 project sites under Category 1 of this solicitation with a project start date of October 1, 2022. Applications are due on Grants.gov by August 15, 2022.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration hosted a webinar on July 21, 2022, which was a primer on the apprenticeship system and feature examples from the field in offering apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship experiences to youth and young adults. The webinar discussed the apprenticeship system, components of high-quality pre-apprenticeship programs, and how apprenticeships compare to other models of work-based learning. Presentations were made from groups on the ground who have implemented apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs for youth and young adults.

This guide summarizes and links to resources that may help answer questions common among young parents, the organizations that serve them, and policymakers interested in supporting young parents’ success. Providing tailored resources to address their needs is critical, because they face particular obstacles to achieving financial stability associated with having the responsibility of caring for a child while transitioning to adulthood. The guide covers three sets of resources: 1) resources young parents can use to address their immediate needs; 2) resources young parent–serving practitioners can use both to increase their capacity for young parent services and to engage young parent clients to address their needs; and 3) resources policymakers can use to inform changes to policy and practice so programs can better serve young parents.

Research shows that young people with histories of child welfare involvement work less often and earn lower wages during the transition to adulthood than their peers without this experience. However, little is known about whether programs that aim to improve employment outcomes for youth with prior child welfare system involvement are actually improving employment outcomes. This brief reviews findings of formative evaluations for two employment programs—MY TIME in Chicago, Illinois, and iFoster Jobs in Los Angeles, California. These evaluations highlight the importance of building a better understanding of the variations in programs serving young people with histories of child welfare system involvement and how they bolster different developmental assets for young people.

This article outlines lessons learned from a study that looked at workforce development programs serving 16 to 24-year-olds that were convicted, adjudicated of, or charged with serious crimes in the juvenile or criminal justice system. Insights include the importance of strategic job placement to help youth explore their career interests while working toward stable and lasting employment, building partnerships with employers who are willing to hire young people with system involvement and subsidizing employment for employers who are hesitant to do so, and recognizing that young people are entrepreneurial and want to explore opportunities in fields like information technology and business.

This blog entry discusses the potential impact of new state legislation in South Carolina that seeks to tap into federal funding to help cover the costs of its extended foster care programming, which serves young adults between the ages of 18 and 21. The federal funding is expected to be allocated towards employing more caseworkers and tailoring support to meet the needs of more young people across the state.