Webinar Resources

Brandi Gilbert: Alright welcome. If you’re joining us now for the webinar.

Brandi Gilbert: We’ll give a few minutes for participants to join. We see people are trickling in.

Brandi Gilbert: Welcome. If you’re joining for the Webinar Building Youth Resilience, how invisible work shapes, stronger futures.

Brandi Gilbert: All right. If you’re trickling in, we’re going to get started in just a sec. Welcome to the webinar. We’re glad that you came. Glad that you’re here for a wonderful conversation. Today you’re at Building Youth Resilience: How Invisible Work Shapes Stronger Futures. So again, welcome, we’ll have the next slide, please, Andrew.

Brandi Gilbert: So for what we’re going to be diving into today, first, we’re going to be talking about resilience frameworks and how resilience frameworks can be a tool to inform youth focused work.

Brandi Gilbert: Second, we’ll talk about how resilience framework actually brings to the forefront some of what I like to call the invisible work of supporting, serving, and coming alongside young people, particularly around building trust and relationships.

Brandi Gilbert: And third, we’ll be hearing from our wonderful panelists who are here today sharing diverse perspectives from the nonprofit sector as well as philanthropy and policy work, and really hearing about boots on the ground to support youth resilience.

Brandi Gilbert: Next slide.

Brandi Gilbert: And a warm welcome from our company, Community Science. I like to say that our name is in what we do. We really use science, rigor, and data to support and come alongside communities using research, evaluation, technical assistance, and data and capacity building in general to help communities change the things that they want to change, and also help to continue to strengthen what communities say is strong locally, and that includes coming alongside young people.

Brandi Gilbert: Next slide.

Brandi Gilbert: All right, and as we get started I will share an introduction for myself, and I’ll also ask my panelists to share an introduction. So I’m Brandi Gilbert. I’m a senior associate at Community Science. I lead our youth engagement, youth leadership focus practice area at Community Science.

Brandi Gilbert: And I will also ask each of our panelists to share one thing that’s exciting them. One thing that’s exciting me is that our youth team at Community Science recently released a report with Connecticut Opportunity Project and Dalio Education, focusing on the experiences of young people who are teens into young adults and focusing on experiences around disconnection from school and work. And what does it really look like to have connection and have support and thinking about systems engagement as well, and intersectionality. So that’s some really powerful work that’s being used to inform policy, especially in the State of Connecticut, that we’re excited about. And next I’ll pass to Sherae to share a little bit about your work, and something that’s exciting you right now.

Cherae McWilliams: Thanks, Brandy. Hi, everyone. My name is Sherae McWilliams. I’m a policy associate at the Annie Casey Foundation. We are a national organization based in Baltimore, Maryland.

Cherae McWilliams: And I support our child welfare and youth justice policy work.

Cherae McWilliams: And some of our youth engagement and youth leadership work alongside my colleague, Alex. And one thing that I am excited about is the upcoming anniversary of Chafee and some of our partners who are leading a national campaign, focused on not only reflecting on the last 25 years of extended foster care, and how young people are faring as they transition to adulthood, but what the next 25 years should look like. And so we’re going to be helping out with an event with policymakers this December.

Cherae McWilliams: And I’ll pass it to you, Alex.

Alex Lohrbach: Thanks. Good afternoon, or good morning, everyone depending on where you are. My name is Alex Lohrbach, and I get to work with Sherae at the Annie Casey Foundation here in Baltimore.

Alex Lohrbach: And I am situated in our unit that focuses on child welfare, and my portfolio specifically focuses on youth engagement and youth leadership, as it relates to older youth who’ve experienced foster care. I like to say that I have one of the best jobs in the foundation, but just one thing that I’m excited about is a shameless plug that we are launching a new curriculum set to launch in February called Elevating Youth Engagement, which is really designed for young advocates and their adult partners and allies to really support them in building a strong partnership together and strong relationships together, so that they can really move systems change.

Alex Lohrbach: And I’ll pass it to Diego.

Diego Uriburu: Thank you, Alex. My name is Diego Uriburu, and I’m the proud co-founder and executive director of Identity, a nonprofit in Montgomery County that works with Latino youth and other historically underserved youth and their families. We do a lot of youth development. We reach around 14,000 young people every year, plus their families, and I’m very proud and excited to come to work every day, because I witness how, with the right support at the right time, our young people thrive.

Brandi Gilbert: Thank you so much. And thank you to our panelists for sharing. Next slide, please.

Brandi Gilbert: All right. So I’m going to share just about 4 or 5 slides before we hop into some great discussion with our panelists, first talking about resilience frameworks.

Brandi Gilbert: So here this is a lot of visual to take in, but we’ll be sharing our slides later. And also housekeeping: feel free to share any questions or comments in the chat. This whole time the chat will be open, we’ll all be able to see it. And if by chance you would like to show captions or closed captioning, you can find the bottom right hand bar to click that. But we’ll be sharing materials and all of those things later.

Brandi Gilbert: So here’s a resilience framework. One of the materials that we’ll be sharing is a blog that I wrote over the summer, and our Vice President asked me a question at the top of this year, and that my background is really in sociology and disaster research, and asked me like, Oh, are you going to go back to doing disaster research like you seem to be so focused on the youth side now, like what happened.

Brandi Gilbert: And that sparked me to write this blog where I talk about the bridge for me. Really, from my early work on disaster research in particular, focus on youth, to how I see myself more. And now, at the thriving youth, youth engagement, youth development, space. One of the core tenants there, I think, is helpful for all of us in the youth, engagement and thriving youth. Space is resilience, frameworks, and in my disaster work. There were zillions of resilience frameworks. Some of my favorite are from Brand and also Community science. We built one that kind of built on brand and some earlier frameworks.

Brandi Gilbert: And so the reason why they’re helpful is because they think about youth, engagement and youth resilience from really backing up and thinking about the big picture. So sometimes in our youth focused work, I tend to notice that we’re so focused on problem or deficit narrative and really flipping that on its head and thinking about what does big picture support or resilience really look like for communities and for young people in particular, and at community science in our work, we see that as having 3 major components with data kind of just going across that really. So one is community strength thinking about, how do young people build sense of community? Where does social capital fit? What does collective efficacy look like? And all of those things are buildable? So again, you have these negative sort of mental model models and frameworks and narratives about.

Brandi Gilbert: You know where the state of young people are, and all of those things can be built and become more robust, and young people also have them. They’re already strong.

Brandi Gilbert: Second is equity, justice, and wellness. So thinking about, what does equity mean, how do we have access to more fair opportunities also? How do we think about well-being, both social well-being and economic well-being? And, lastly, infrastructure? And I think of infrastructure could really be resources, time funding all the things that we’re putting into our work.

Brandi Gilbert: And so all of those are really levers. And there are many elements of community resilience. Where, if we really step back, we can think about how to support young people in a much bigger way and also keeping community context in mind. So that’s 1 reason why I see resilience frameworks as a powerful tool. The other tool is having my background. Disaster. Research has taught me about, and I’ll have the next slide, please.

Brandi Gilbert: Resilience frameworks often talk about bouncing back better and bouncing back from what you might say is usually resilience, frameworks, divine stresses, chronic and acute stressors, and so acute stressors can be things like what I studied early on so like hurricane Katrina, the BP oil spill human cause and weather cause disasters. And then, on the other side, you have chronic stresses which many of us today, judging by the information you shared with us and signing up for this webinar are on that chronic stress side. And so are we at community. Science is thinking about things like food, insecurity, engagement with the juvenile justice system, housing, instability, and so resilience frameworks really help us to understand how both chronic and acute stressors sometimes combine and collide.

Brandi Gilbert: One example, is communities in North Carolina that were recently hit by hurricanes at the end of September. We also work with foundation part and community partners there who are working on lots of chronic stressors, but are now also facing acute stressors. And we know for young people when those things collide, or even chronic stress on its own or acute. You’re seeing mental health, emotional health, academic, physical and social and behavioral health. So again, really thinking about what is the big picture structure of how we understand how we situate youth focused work.

Brandi Gilbert: And those are 2 reasons. So where we see a community science resilience frameworks as really a helpful tool for us. Next slide.

Brandi Gilbert: The other component that we really like about resilience frameworks is in that 1st box with sense of community and social capital. So those frameworks commonly bring to the forefront work that is really critical for supporting youth, resilience. And so we have a model in the next slide. But what that model really shows is sometimes as program providers, funders.

Brandi Gilbert: Policymakers. We might jump right to what are the services and what are the problems? But really, before that you have the need to build the social capital, the relationships and all the things that build the foundation before you’re actually moving into programs. So that’s 1st understanding the strengths and needs of young people. Where are they in their journey? How do you meet them where they are also? How do you really sort of build out your program in a way that I like Diego. But you said in one of our earlier prep sessions, that trust is transferable.

Brandi Gilbert: And so how do you build trust, and also recognize that trust can be transferred? And so that you can sort of build that trust even with even more young people to help build services.

Brandi Gilbert: And lastly, oftentimes this is the work that’s invisible. So what we see is that the work that’s on funded on paper is commonly those services so connection to workforce connection to education, and we might see some of like the wraparound services and things in there. But what we’ve been hearing from across our projects many partners that we’ve talked to is really like the pushing and talking about. What does it take to do that work well, and many more of us becoming conscious of that next slide.

Brandi Gilbert: And so here’s our last slide before we’ll shift to our 1st question for our presenters.

Brandi Gilbert: Is that invisible work so thinking about? And I wonder for you who are joining us today, think about do you have invisible work and efforts that you either drive or support. What are the ways that we can use data tracking information, whether that’s from young people themselves or from the people who provide or support the programs of really shedding light on what that invisible work is. And of course it can be other things, too. The resilience framework is big. It takes a lot to make communities resilient.

Brandi Gilbert: But I’m talking here. One example, concrete example of that is the building of relationships and social capital as a piece of what is commonly some of that early work that is often invisible. So when you think about that little green person, that is where support and service delivery is happening, but often what it takes to get there is the building of awareness. How you grow, that awareness, how your messaging, how that messaging is resonating, or maybe not resonating with young people also connecting with early needs. So we’re also often seeing with our partners we work with is sometimes the need is not with the program, sir, but recognizing that you have to overcome sometimes basic needs so access to documentation, access to housing and those services are becoming more and more embedded in the programs that support young people. So again, this is looking at some of those steps is what could be invisible. How could we bring it to the forefront, especially if we know that it allows us to do our best work coming alongside, young people.

Brandi Gilbert: And so now I’m going to take a pause and share next slide, please.

Brandi Gilbert: Actually, before I take a pause, I do want to end on one note is that I also share. My blog is in addition to these learnings that we talked about here. What we see across many of our projects is hope is hope. It keeps coming up. And despite whatever young people might be facing, there’s still strength, and there’s still hope. So. For instance, in our study, when I said what I’m excited about when we interviewed over 74 teens and young adults experiencing disconnection from school and work almost every, if not every. I actually believe every interview young people were asked in the end What are their goals for themselves? And each time they were able to articulate what their, what their goals were, and who was driving those goals, and for what reason, which was often is taking a stand on for themselves and for their families. And so hope is strong in these stories and in the resilience story, and also the evidence shows that when hope is in place that our health is better, our social, emotional well-being is better, and that is scientific. That’s like, not a nice to have, but actually scientifically proven. And so I want to end on that note before I transition to some questions with our panelists. So I’ll start with the 1st question, and if we could have that question in the chat as well.

Brandi Gilbert: Is that, and we can pull the slide down, Andrea, and PIN us all now, and you all can look out for that question in your chat. Oh, it’s already there. Okay? So our 1st question is about invisible work. So I’ve asked our panelists to talk a little bit about.

Brandi Gilbert: Given that social capital is key to fostering youth, resilience. How do you see supporting organizations and funders playing a role in building strong supportive relationships for young people? What can we do to ensure that visible work like relationship building and consistent well-being, checking, relentless outreach is another example receives the necessary attention and resources alongside of service delivery.

Brandi Gilbert: And I’ll pass to whoever wants to start off on our panel.

Alex Lohrbach: I’m happy to jump in.

Alex Lohrbach: Alright, yeah, okay, this could go in so many different directions. So I’m really excited to to dig into this. I wanted to just I I know I mentioned this in my intro, but wanted to just contextualize my work because I think youth engagement as a term sort of means, different things in different spaces. Right? And so in my role, I’m more so talking about engaging and partnering with young people to create macro level systems change regarding in our case, primarily, child welfare systems, right? That they’ve experienced and that that may have harmed them right? And I think about this work. My work is 2 pronged. So some external facing work, so supporting organizations to do this work, and then we have our more programmatic arm. So we run a youth leadership program and and support a network across the country of young advocates with lived experience in foster care. And so

Alex Lohrbach: I’ll sort of speak from that like youth, leadership, and youth, advocacy lens. Hopefully, it resonates beyond that. But that’s that’s sort of where where I’ll situate this and the notion of invisible work really deeply resonates with me. Our team talks about it all of the time for lots of different reasons, because it’s a huge lift right primarily, is one of those reasons that it is a lot of work to do the work of relationship building and and it is work to be taken seriously, right like, I always think about what we know around adolescent development. Now, right? So this idea that because our brains are so malleable when we’re young, that no interaction is neutral, right, but that actually, every single interaction has an impact on developing brains, and that really compels me. And I think should compel all of us to to take our interactions and our relationships with young people really seriously, because they’re a place to they’re a place to practice a lot of things right? We grow. And we learn in the context of relationships. So we get to practice setting boundaries, working through conflict. Discovering our goals, unearthing our values and like really being in interdependent relationships with one another. Right? Like we’re talking about like a bilateral relationship. Right? It’s not just adults doing young people a favor by showing up for them. But actually, young people enrich our lives, too. In lots of different ways. And that’s that’s a lot of the work. I think a couple of things that I’ll just name in addition. Under this umbrella of invisible work in the context of youth advocacy, work that we do. There’s a lot of work to get to know the young leaders within the context of their experience in foster care, right, because that’s sort of the shared experience that’s our common goal around advocacy. But while also holding and affirming that young people are more than really painful things that have happened to them right? And so figuring out with them like what feels safe to share in the context of advocacy, work? Thinking with them. How does that change over time? One thing you may have wanted to share publicly, that moves a piece of legislation in your home community might not feel safe anymore 2 years down the line, and sort of thinking through the work that goes into supporting young people to like, share and advocate from their scars, not their open wounds, as one of my colleagues says.

Alex Lohrbach: And so that’s that’s 1 piece, and I think the other piece that I’ll just lift up is back to that interdependent relationship piece like, there’s a lot happening with adult supporters and practitioners in this work, too. Right? That we that folks are carrying and we need to ensure that people who are supporting young people are also well right and also cared for. I think this is true across the board, but I think it’s particularly important. When we think about the growing wave of like credible messengers and peer navigators or folks who have otherwise similar lived experiences to the young people that they’re supporting. There’s a lot of layers right in the supports that practitioners need and need to be tended to in in really intentional ways. And I think there are lots of opportunities for organizations to to be thinking about that creatively, and certainly funders to be sort of intentional about. How are we supporting the invisible work that makes this whole thing that makes all this magic happen on the ground right? And so I know. Sure I was gonna sort of think a little bit more from the funders. Perspective.

Cherae McWilliams: Yeah, no, that I I think that really beautifully like encompasses a lot right. And I think Brandi, you also mentioned, you know, in your intro right that, like in many youth serving systems like child welfare, well-being, you know, the idea of well-being is really only measured usually by access to services right? Or, you know, outcomes around service provision and things like recidivism right? Or discharge rate, or like things like that. But I think a lot of opportunity exists for systems to actively promote and support a fuller concept of well-being. Beyond just service, delivery and and service provision right? And so I think also, you know, we as a collective in the field, right? And I’ll also speak, you know. From a funder’s perspective, right? That we should be pushing, I think, to measure outcomes based more on youth, family, community well-being.

Cherae McWilliams: And so I think you know, to the extent that funders can try to shift and sort of disrupt some of the more traditional funding models and structures and give organizations, youth serving organizations more flexibility. And you know sometimes more time, right in in the way that grants are structured, because we know that authentic being an authentic relationship with people takes a lot of time, and you know one of my colleagues likes to say that like relationships move at the speed of trust. Right? And you can’t, you know, manufacture. You know, artificially trust right? It’s something that you have to do and put time into

Cherae McWilliams: and so I think you know, I think that’s 1 thing I’d like funders to keep in in perspective. And also just, you know, the evaluation and metrics part right like developing metrics that really can speak toward and speak to the impact of authentic relationships that make it easier to demonstrate their value to funders and stakeholders, and and doing that right, developing those metrics, and you know measures in partnership with young people right, and asking them how they define well-being. And you know, sometimes asking them questions like, you know. Do you feel like an equal partner at the table? Do you feel like you’re voice? Is is being heard in in these processes?

Brandi Gilbert: For sure. And what does that mean? Sorry, I was just gonna make a quick addition. What does that feel like like we’ve asked those questions. You know. What does it feel like down to where young people have said like: Oh, when we’re integrated like, we’ll be in a shared intergenerational space, and like, we won’t be sitting at the back like. It’s very specific things when you get down to you know. What does success mean?

Brandi Gilbert: Thank you for sharing both of you. Diego, feel free. Please.

Diego Uriburu: So from a youth service perspective. The invisible work needs to happen. If you, if the program is going to be successful. if you budget for it. If you don’t, you have to do it. So in terms of for funders, people need to explain to them why is it important? And then you have to budget it into your timeline. If you’re going to have a program that your outcome is workforce development of educational attainment, or whatever it might be. You know that you need to budget time now, at the beginning of the of the program, in order to to build these trustful relationships. you’ll be able to hire people that really care. Young people can smell fake one mile away. So you have to invest in people that really care that are trained so that you can understand that the the beautiful dynamics between really care about these these young people, and at the same time understanding that that’s to care means to set boundaries, and that they will respect you more and want you more if you set the boundaries. But those need to be established a little bit into the relationship, not at the beginning. So there’s a lot of work that that that it’s involved in in this, in invisible work that if funders are not aware, it’s the responsibility, our responsibility as service providers to make them aware again, to budget for its costs and also for the time. Because if we don’t do it, the programs will not work.

Brandi Gilbert: Yeah. And Diego, do you have any additions or thoughts about? What does it take to budget for that? So I know multiple partners that we work with have talked about their journey and understanding, and being able to really quantify.

Brandi Gilbert: For instance, like likely it takes us 7 touches of outreach, or we likely outreach for months before people roll into our program participation. Or we’ve even seen some of our partners are like we will serve in the wraparound services for like unlimited time and over time people opt in. But like, I’ve seen partners just get better and better with that data of like, what does it look like? So that we could all get on board better.

Diego Uriburu: Well, it really depends. It depends on. Let’s take Identity as an example. We’ve been around for 26 years, and the community really knows us. So for us, that is an accelerator. When we go to provide services, the parents know, and the parents tell the young people depending the ages. Also elementary schoolers don’t have much of a choice, so the parents send them. And it’s the caring charisma of the youth development specialist not to engage. If you’re talking about youth, older young people in 2021, 2234 have been involved in the juvenile justice system. Alex, you were talking about experiences no positive negative. Many of the young people that we work with have had many negative experiences, and and it takes an inflection point in order to build those relationships, and they are distrustful. So it takes one time, 2 times, 3 times. They purposely sometimes sabotage the relationship to see if you’re gonna be there for them or not. they test you, you have to follow through. So it really it really depends. But if you’re an established organization then it takes a lot less time to do it. If you are a university that wants to run a program and you have no connections, then then you have to budget for a lot more. So it really really depends on on who the young people that you’re serving are, how they come to you, do you, partner, with someone that has a trust, and they’re gonna refer them to you. And they’re going to be part at least the 1st 2, 3 months in order to to that trust, to transfer genuinely and genuinely. It really there are many, many variables, but each organization should know his or her environment and and their assets in terms of their relationship with the communities they’re trying to serve and make judgments based on that.

Brandi Gilbert: Thank you. Thanks.

Brandi Gilbert: So now we are collecting a couple of questions in the chat which we’ll we’ll revisit. We may also ask some people if they feel comfortable to share their questions and speak out loud with us. If you’re okay with that, so question number 2 will also be coming up in the chat is about your work. So what specific strategies for the panel have you found effective in supporting young people? Manage the stressors and build resilience.

Brandi Gilbert: What other strategies has your organization used to help young people build resilience and overcome the stressors they face? And in our Prep. Diego we talked about how you might be the best one to kick off this question as a nonprofit, being on the front lines of building resilience and providing direct services to young people.

Diego Uriburu: Well happy to start again. It it depends, but in a general terms we use the stages of change model in order to judge where young people are in the spectrum. No, if you are in in pre-contemplation, you don’t. You don’t know. You have a problem. Then we start with recreational activities in order to build the bond and establish a relationship. If you are in pre-contemplation, then we start having this, the activities that you like, the recreation could be going on field trips, etc. But you start talking about these different things because in pre contemplation you know that you have a problem. But you’re not willing to do anything about it. Now then, then, you go to a stage where you’re willing to do something about it. So in preparation. So you start. I don’t know if you’re going to do a workforce development program with a young person. You might have meetings with the with business owners, etc. so that they get enthused about the situation. At the same time we do an assessment of every single young person that we work with to identify risk and protective factors. So we want to. We want to reduce the risk factors. We want to enhance protective factors. Also, we want to know what the impediments for success will be if they have children, and they don’t have anyone to leave them with. So we want to to prepare them for success. And then comes action. Now, when you get enrolled in the educational supports or workforce and employment services, or you go back to school, or you start the GED, or whatever is it that you are, gonna be part of a a Soccer League? But we want by that time we want to have reduced as many barriers as possible, including the personal barriers. No, that’s why we use the stages of change. And then you have the the physical barriers, and we have a case management department that works with the young people and their families to try to reduce those barriers. If you’re going to be evicted then, and you don’t know where you’re going to end up. It’s hard to to find someone employment, because they might have to move somewhere else. So you have to have a comprehensive approach. Again, to look at the at the state of mind of of the person in terms of the stages of change. Again, pre contemplation and contemplation. We do not introduce them to to programs because they will probably not be successful. And we’d rather put forward someone that will be successful. But after they they overcome, and they’re ready. Then we work with them, and at the same time we reduce the physical barriers, if you will. in terms of transportation, illness, whatever that might be via case management. So that that gives you an an overview of how we do it at Identity.

Brandi Gilbert: Yeah, thank you so much. And I love that you’re pointing to specific tools that your organization uses when our audience signs up for this webinar and gives us a little bit of information lots of times. What we find is like people want like the what like, what’s the strategy? What are you doing? What’s happening? Because we’re all kind of grappling, and we know that the runway can be long for supporting young people. But I really like that. You said like, Hey, here are 2 specific things.

Brandi Gilbert: One of our values is that young people need a lot more than one chance. So no, we pick up where they fell, and and we start again. But the process tends to be a lot faster.

Brandi Gilbert: Yes. And recognizing that that is still progress. I love that, too. And I was going to say, I love that you name 2 specific tools that, like we recognize there’s a long runway. There can be a long runway, I’m sure. Lots of people on this webinar agree, and 2 tools that identity has used one stages of change model, and so formally understanding where young people are. And then also assessment number 2 is understanding both risk and protective factors. And sometimes those things can be going on in a more informal way. It’s like, Oh, every young person you know. Of course, we’re creating a relationship. Of course, we’re seeing what’s up. But I really love that you’re saying like, no, these are specific parts of our process, and we have a way of doing those, and I would assume that also means a lot for how you’re working with your team, and therefore how the team is working with young people in a strategic way.

Brandi Gilbert: Yeah, thank you for sharing.

Brandi Gilbert: And also for Sherae or Alex, anything that you wanted to add to this question.

Cherae McWilliams: I was gonna and sorry I just wanted to add a note. I’m sorry. My facial expressions during I was being asked questions by colleagues, and I was like, just hold on. Sorry.

Brandi Gilbert: No worries.

Cherae McWilliams: But anyway, yeah, I I like, you know, Diego, how you mentioned sort of like. You know, creating safe spaces where young people can feel affirmed, valued, understood, and that, you know, they have the ability to fail and have second chances within the context of supportive relationships. I think that’s really key in our work in our organization. And Alex can speak, you know, way more to this. But I think we’ve really focused on leadership development and cultivating peer networks in particular. So young people can build social capital amongst their peers, share experiences. You know, learn from one another, and really reinforcing their resilience through their community. But I think also, you know, that’s our sort of, I think contribution in a lot of ways. To the field. But I think we have a lot of amazing grantee partners. That do you know, a lot of powerful work? And use things like, you know in their service. Delivery in in really amazing ways that might not see seem like this is like directly connected. But they find ways to like. You know, do somatic mind, body connection, work with young people? And do grounding techniques and talk about coping mechanisms and and just, I think all of that really is important, as we think about a more expansive view of well-being and you know, helping each other sort of be well in all of the spaces that we are together.

Brandi Gilbert: Yeah, thank you so much, Alex. Anything for you?

Alex Lohrbach: I think I would I would underscore the just the power of peer spaces. And how that can feel like a soft place to land, and you don’t need to over explain why you’re showing up the way that you’re showing up. I also, I guess one of the other things. And maybe this feels connected to the second, 3, rd 10th chance. You know, concept that the way that we have structured our youth leadership network is, it’s really it’s like a once a fellow, always a fellow culture. And so that was not to that was to avoid recreating another aging out process, right of this network of people that care about you, and that you feel like you belong to

Alex Lohrbach: And it also really embodies this culture of like. Step back when you need to, and like we will, we’ll welcome you back with open arms, or come find you to say, Hey, we miss you you know, just depending on where you are in life, like a lot of flexibility around that and a lot of grace is just like baked into. I think our values and the way that the programs are designed. And then I think, oh, the other thing that I was just gonna say was

Alex Lohrbach: We have trained up other fellows to do this sort of in a peer coach capacity, but our team also. Takes a coaching approach to supporting young people so right that differs a bit from mentoring. It differs from parenting. Teacher therapist. Right? It’s it’s this non directive. Non judgmental supportive stance. To supporting young people, and I think that has felt really important. one, so that the young people that we are working with can really stand in their autonomy and their agency, knowing that they’ve come from a space where a lot of decisions have been made for them that have really impacted their lives right? And so that was really intentional through the lens of some of the nuances that come with being in foster care and just sort of holding that stance, knowing that our goals and our values are around you, and your leadership journey and wanting to support you full stop in in what that looks like.

Diego Uriburu: One of the things that Alex mentioned really resonates. And this is so basic. But people might not know. But we also one of the the anchors of identities. Work is the positive youth development model. Not that Ccm people assets assets that need to be nourished and not problems to be fixed. but with simple things, simple things. remembering their names. No say, Hello, Alex, how are you knowing when their birthday is, and celebrating her birthday, for example you, I would say that at least 30% of the young people we work with. No one has ever celebrated their birthday. So that is like a an accelerator towards building trust and and and hope the young people. So anyways, I just wanted to to. It’s basic. But the youth develop the positive youth development model is a phenomenal model to follow and to train staff on in order to do this type of work.

Brandi Gilbert: Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that addition.

Brandi Gilbert: So now we’re going to move on to question 3, which is about hope.

Brandi Gilbert: And so you’ll see it showing up in your chat as well, and I’m just giving it a scroll.

Brandi Gilbert: Also reminder that we see some questions coming in. Continue to drop and share those questions.

Brandi Gilbert: So number 3, question for our panelists is about hope.

Brandi Gilbert: So I shared in my opening remarks that at Community science. We have had a lot of focus lately on hope and just seeing hopefulness. Also seeing young people define their own hopefulness. So sometimes our programs might focus on one thing, for instance, connection to jobs. And then, really, what young people are looking for is like, Yeah, job is fine. But like, what I really want is financial security. I want to have my credit score. That’s good, so that I could have an apartment for myself and my daughter, and maybe my mother to come when she needs a soft place to land. And so thinking about what is hope? How do young people define them? Dreams for themselves. And how do we support that?

Brandi Gilbert: So the question is, considering much of youth, focused work emphasizes, challenges and vulnerabilities. How do you center hope in your work as you balance, addressing and supporting real world challenges. Can you provide examples of how fostering hope has led to positive outcomes for young people who you work with?

Diego Uriburu: Happy to start, please.

Diego Uriburu: So hope it’s a process, and people develop hope or acquire hope. It doesn’t happen. So what what happens naturally is that young people are. They face lots of challenges? No, some more than others, some more serious than others. But again, I want to repeat this a thousand times, but we are in the business of developing trustful relationships with them. What happens when you develop a trustful relationship is that this young person no longer feels alone. And so, whatever heaviness he or she might be experiencing is shared, it takes time for them to share everything that’s happening and everything that happened, but from that minute on they feed alone. They feel that someone sees them because you communicate when you build trust. you know, saying, Oh, we trust each other. But this there’s a a bond that was that was built. people understand. The young people understand that that bond is built based on that. These individuals see something in them.

Diego Uriburu: I recognize something in you that you might have not recognized for a long time. So they also there’s a process of rediscovery that I’m worth it. I am. I have potential. you know. I can do things. And then come other things that Alex and and Sherry had said in terms of. They connect with a group of young people whose defenses are low because they’re in a trustful environment. So they share some of the experiences, and they’re no longer alone. and they can be become vulnerable. being hopeful to me. Great part of it is feeling so safe that you can be vulnerable. The majority of the young people that we work with when we get to them. They have not been vulnerable for a long, long time. and then you work, begin to work on a well on a work plan. Now for each one of the young people that are involved themselves and the families, and suddenly they begin to achieve things. Now. They re-enroll in school. They might get get their Gd. Or get a job or get get a better job. But throughout throughout that process. Now they feel better and better about themselves, and we have to be very careful as to having the safety net there in case they fall because many do fall. But again, you do not fall the same place where you started. Sometimes you pick it up and you pick someone up and help them pick up because they do the work. We don’t do the work as we tell them we do 10% of the work you have to do 90% of the work no one can leave for anyone but again, it’s a process, and it starts with building trustful relationships and then provide them with a safe environment in order to to become vulnerable. and then try to try to those issues that can be solved, and some things cannot be solved. but at least they understand that they are not. They do not equal the challenges that they’re facing, and some of them are not even theirs, so they can set their own futures for themselves.

Brandi Gilbert: Yes. And speaking of what you were saying is, some of the challenges are not theirs. A lot of our work recently, community sciences focused on the intersection of systems that young people are facing. So the education system, which is commonly the foundation, because here in this country we have to go to school legally, but then you also have, like the housing system coming in the child welfare system, the health system, and all of those kind of hitting together. And that also what you shared also made me think about like how those systems catch young people or don’t. And we’re finding across multiple projects, how much we keep hearing about housing, insecurity, and housing being such a foundational system.

Brandi Gilbert: That it’s like, oh, I’m trying to access mental health, but I don’t have stable. Everything is like a but where, if you don’t have housing, and for me part of my past work, I came from a housing Center Urban Institute. So I feel like again, like, I’m not in a housing center. But housing is really bombarding our work as thinking about like what are the supports? The most common.

Diego Uriburu: Also Brandi, the other I agree 100% in addition. You have, for example, I was speaking with a young person this morning that his mother chooses to be in an abusive relationship. No, and this he’s tried and tried and tried. And so the message to him was. You cannot control what your mother decides, you just can’t. So what are you going to do to have a different future for yourself? But for many years he’s tried and tried, and and he got sucked into into that, that dynamic. And like those many.

Brandi Gilbert: Yeah, I also hear potential housing there because of the connection between who’s doing those actions and what that means for who young people might be living with. And I know one of our questions, too, a little bit earlier, was also about like you have couch surfing, and you have sort of the informal supports around young people. And how do you support that that stuff? And I say, like to that question, we can maybe dig deeper later. But to me it’s really about supporting the larger systems that are triggering those actions of young people needing to be sleeping in target parking lots, couches, like all of the things. Even if they might not be using words like homelessness or housing incident, it could just be like in our study. We have, like this piece of recall like, Oh, I sleep outside like no one’s saying like, Oh, I have this. It’s like, literally, I sleep outside, and that could mean lots of things. So yeah, for sure, Diego, I want to also pass to Alex and Sheree.

Alex Lohrbach: Yeah, I can jump in this. I mean, this is so connected. So there’s a couple of things that come up for me. One, I actually cast this question out to a few of our advocates to see how they respond. And so Maria, Sylvia Ash and Anastasia shout out and they shared a couple of them actually shared specific but different examples around housing.

Alex Lohrbach: and how important it is to affirm people’s dignity through ensuring that their basic needs are met right? With the understanding. Like you’re saying, once people when people’s basic needs are met like housing, then people, as another advocate said, have the privilege to dream, and can feel restored right? And so that was, that’s just really resonant, because that came up another person really lifted up like the importance of hope being seated in the very act of listening to young people. So this is threaded through this conversation, too right like listening to what they’re asking for, what they’re hoping for, and then following through right on whatever action we can take, sort of restoring hope in people and what it, what it feels like to show up for people and to be shown up for

Alex Lohrbach: I think, is is really really powerful. And then I think about like. Like you’re saying, Brandi, too, just like the interlocking systems of oppression that are hard at work. In keeping people in a in a, in a place of pain and despair, and like, really makes hope and inaccessible feeling sometimes. And when I think about our youth leadership work. Young people are really on this journey of processing their own experiences and their trauma, and then mapping that to this bigger world, right mapping that to these structures that are rooted in racism and transphobia and ableism, and all of these things right? And so together in the thick of that journey, I think we find hope in our shared efforts, right, like hope and learning how to take care of ourselves, knowing that movements are only as strong as the people that are really showing up in them. I’ve seen people really cultivate hope and like articulate that right and articulate. I have found purpose in this advocacy work, and I actually have found it to be healing. And I think that’s such a beautiful and powerful, really hard thing to measure how people sort of experience healing in the context of advocacy work. But it can be right to be part of something bigger, to be in community with people that you have shared values with shared experiences. and and to see an experience change actually happen to sort of reflect on, like the pain I can actually wield the painful experiences that I have gone through. To create change for others is a really moving experience that many people and it’s not, you know, it’s not all butterflies and hope and healing right? It’s like really messy work. But that is something that that comes up a lot that people reflect on and I think it can really fuel or refuel hope. It certainly does for me like, that’s the other thing about sort of this like being in interdependent relationships right? Like there’s so many different dimensions. But like being in community with such strong and dynamic young leaders across the country is like also very life, giving for me, and that’s important to sustaining my work in the you know what I mean. So again, I’ll stop there. But I really love this question.

Brandi Gilbert: Thank you. Thank you.

Brandi Gilbert: Any other shares.

Cherae McWilliams: I, you know, just to underline and underscore, you know, totally, Alex, I feel like and from a funding perspective, you know, I think that that’s also like a cue for funders to invest in and support youth-led organizing efforts and movements and activism. And, you know, also advocacy organizations to help create space and build the infrastructure for young people to really lead in some of our transformative efforts. Because, as we talk about authentic engagement with young people, we’re asking them to inform and drive decision-making, not just about their own lives, but sharing insights, critiques, and considerations about the systems and environments they experience. When you ask somebody what they want or envision for the future, putting your support and money where your mouth is and following through on what they want for their communities is important. Investing in that is one way we can foster hope.

Brandi Gilbert: Yeah, thank you so much.

Brandi Gilbert: All right. So we have a final question before we take that one. I want to revisit our chat. We’ve answered one of the questions about supporting what looks like housing instability. There’s another one in here also about access to physical health, like young people who are older and commonly face major physical health needs, in addition to social-emotional well-being. How do you make sure they’re getting access to programs and things they might need? Anyone on the panel want to take that one?

Brandi Gilbert: It also mentions, especially considering that some of them might be uninsured, which is a major issue. I believe, across the work that we all do, is young people who might be uninsured. Another cue that young people might not have the support they need for mental and physical health.

Diego Uriburu: Happy to start. So that’s why I mentioned before that we do an assessment, like a baseline assessment of young people where we talk about all recent projects. Health is one of them. We are in Montgomery County, Maryland. We are very lucky to have a network of clinics that provide free services to clients. So, once we identify the need, we work with the case management department to get young people the services they need. This county has an infrastructure that allows this, regardless of documentation status, which might be very difficult in other places. Younger people, 18 and younger, now get the state’s healthcare, and that’s a positive in Maryland. I don’t know about other states.

Brandi Gilbert: Yeah.

Diego Uriburu: But it’s key, because if you’re hurting, the rest doesn’t matter. If we can support a young person and a family member in getting access to healthcare, trust has already been built because they know that you delivered.

Brandi Gilbert: Thank you so much.

Brandi Gilbert: Alex Fishery. Anything else?

Alex Lohrbach: I’ll just weigh in by acknowledging that this is not my lane. And I could also share a couple of organizations in our network that have really focused on ensuring young people in foster care have dental care and dental insurance, because that’s a huge gap. I can also share a lot of work around Medicaid and foster care to ensure young people don’t fall through those re-enrollment gaps. I know there’s a growing conversation around Medicaid, thinking about the expansive ways it can support young people and families beyond things like housing and other social determinants of health.

Brandi Gilbert: Yeah.

Alex Lohrbach: I’ll stop. Cherae, do you want to jump in on that?

Cherae McWilliams: Yeah, I mean, it’s a huge topic. I think, really at the core, we’re talking about well-being across different domains: physical health, social, emotional, economic. And shout out to the Youth Transition Funders Group, which put out a resource called the Well-being and Well-becoming Framework. It’s a really helpful organizing framework to guide transformational investments toward young people’s well-being. There’s a growing conversation among youth-serving systems around better utilizing Medicaid, especially the children’s behavioral health part, which is legally entitled to children for what they need to be healthy. Recommendations are being made to remove diagnostic criteria for service access, use federal waivers for this, and add new provider types to manage care contracts and state plans. Non-traditional support, like talk therapy, is one of the main forms of mental health, but there are also more holistic support and healing types if systems prioritized and allowed providers to do that work. In Canada, doctors can write prescriptions for time in nature, giving free access to parks. Thinking about how we structure systems to promote well-being and doing this work collaboratively, since it’s a collective responsibility, is essential.

Brandi Gilbert: Great. Thank you so much. We only have about 4 minutes left. Andrea, please prepare to show our final slide with upcoming webinar opportunities. Meanwhile, I’d like each panelist to share parting words on building resilient, equitable supports for young people in times of uncertainty. How can community organizations and funders best collaborate for long-term change with and for youth?

Alex Lohrbach: I think the last part of what you said, Brandi—working with young people—is crucial. Partnering with people with lived experiences to support change in an authentic, reciprocal way. It’s not just about people supporting the organization to do better; it’s about creating a reciprocal relationship.

Brandi Gilbert: Thank you so much. Diego?

Diego Uriburu: I think Casey does a phenomenal job, but it’s also about having honest conversations between funders and fundees about what it really takes. Some funding sources are blind to the actual work and are only one directional. Having young people at those conversations would be invaluable.

Brandi Gilbert: Sheray, final word?

Cherae McWilliams: Oh, man, that’s tough. I agree with both panelists. Being authentically in relationships with people and finding ways to lift up the value and impact of this work is key.

Brandi Gilbert: Tremendous thanks to our panelists and all who joined. We’ve shared a link to upcoming webinars on topics like community power-building and intergenerational community advisory boards. Please join us for future conversations. Thank you again to everyone for being here today. Take care!