Empowering Youth Aging Out of Foster Care: Community Engaged Technology Solutions to Improve Transitions to Independent Living

Improving the health literacy of adolescents and increasing the success of transitions to adulthood from foster care are two defined Healthy People 2030 public health priorities. Skills to promote health literacy and independent living are often lacking in adolescents in foster care and young adults who have aged out of care. Frequent placement changes, no permanent home, lack of trust in adults and systems of care prevent the development of a strong support system for transitioning to adulthood from foster care, which can result in lack of access to personal health information, complicated identity documents, and disconnected child welfare, health care and community resources. These factors limit the ability to transition to adulthood successfully, drive disparities in health outcomes, and may explain lack of educational attainment and career development for young adults formerly in care. Successful transitions to independent living are unattainable unless barriers are addressed with a multidisciplinary, community-based approach.

The Rees-Jones Center for Foster Care Excellence at Children's Health and the Krissi Holman Family Resource Library at Children's Health recognized the unique needs of adolescents in foster care and young adults formerly in care (AYAFC) as they transition to independent living. We developed a partnership with community agencies (Empowering Youth Taskforce) that support these youth in the areas of child welfare (TX Department of Family and Protective Services), education (UNT PuSH Program), career development and housing support (TRAC at City Square, Zoie's Place), legal support (SMU Dedman Law School), and others, to increase AYAFC health literacy, access to health care, and awareness and use of available community resources. Frequent placement changes and unstable housing make it difficult for AYAFC to keep their health information, identity records and personal documents together, which is critical for accessing health services, enrolling in health insurance, and maintaining wellness. Since many have access to a smart phone, using technology is one way to promote adolescent health and wellness. An app is a possible solution to address many of the barriers that impede successful transition to independent living.

The goal of this project is to engage AYAFC and stakeholders who support these young people throughout North Texas to collaboratively design an app to support the transition from foster care to adulthood. This project will utilize a mixed methods approach to inform the transition process while addressing both individual and systems level barriers to increase the success of AYAFC's transition to independent living. This project builds upon work done by a multidisciplinary community task force led by the Principal Investigator, and the development of an adolescent transition process at the Rees-Jones Clinic. Community partners are fully engaged in the design of the intervention and will be involved in AYAFC and stakeholder recruitment, data analysis, and interpretation of the results.