Our Work
History
Foster Youth in Action (FYIA) was founded in 2008 by members and supportive adults of California Youth Connection (CYC) with a bold vision: a national movement of organized foster youth groups across the country. For years, FYIA provided intensive training to help launch new groups and built a peer network where local organizations could share strategies and learn from one another.
In 2019, FYIA conducted a listening tour to hear directly from Members about the future they wanted. A task force of Members from New York, California, Oregon, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina, working alongside the broader Network, developed a new framework designed to shift collective power to Members and strengthen the movement from the ground up. That new structure was approved by Members in June 2022.
In 2024, FYIA and CYC formally merged. FYIA now operates as a program within CYC, combining the organizing power of a national network with the institutional infrastructure and support of California's most established foster youth-led advocacy organization. This merger allows FYIA to grow sustainably while staying rooted in youth leadership and lived experience.
What We Do
FYIA is CYC's national arm: a membership organization made up of both individual foster youth leaders and foster youth advocacy organizations across the United States.
At the center of FYIA is the FYIA Core: five stipended youth leaders who represent their home states and organizations, serve as the governing and decision-making body of the network, and drive the national movement forward. FYIA Core members are supported jointly by CYC and their local or state organizations.
Beyond its own leadership, FYIA provides technical assistance and organizational development to member organizations, helping foster youth-led groups across the country strengthen their capacity, sharpen their advocacy, and sustain their impact.
Our current network includes 18 member organizations, with each committing two organizers to participate in national work and meetings.
Our Vision
A world rooted in community, love, and connection, where all young people and their families have all their needs met and are free to follow their dreams; a world where all have social and economic power.
Our Mission
FYIA is building a movement led by a network of foster-led groups and people with lived experience to dismantle oppressive "child welfare" systems, redistribute power, and build new systems of healing and well-being.
We do this through collective leadership, grassroots organizing, and a national People's Agenda, developed and owned by youth, that drives systemic change in policy, practice, and culture.
Our People's Agenda
The People's Agenda reflects the priorities voted on by FYIA members and centers the five issues our network has identified as most urgent:
Extended Foster Care: fighting to expand access and support for youth aging out of the system
Foster Youth Rights: ensuring youth have full legal protections and agency
Housing: securing safe, stable, and affordable housing for all foster youth
Direct Cash Assistance and Direct Income: challenging systems that criminalize poverty and advocating for economic support that goes directly to youth
Mental Health: building systems of care, healing, and well-being rooted in community
Collective Leadership
Foster Youth in Action aims to build the collective leadership of people with lived experience through intensive foster youth organizing training and leadership development, paid decision-making and leadership roles, and healing-centered affinity spaces.
Increasing Local Capacity for Grassroots Organizing
Built on a framework and curriculum co-designed with California Youth Connection, FYIA builds local and national power through intensive youth organizing, leadership development, and technical assistance. Now operating as a program within CYC, FYIA supports its 18 member organizations across the country by developing emerging foster youth-led groups, providing coaching and capacity-building to staff supporters, and connecting local chapters to a national network of resources, strategies, and peer knowledge.
At the national level, the FYIA Core serves as the governing body of the network, setting priorities, managing the budget, and driving the People's Agenda forward. Locally, member organizations receive tailored support to grow their membership, sharpen their advocacy, and sustain their impact over the long term.
Creating a Network of Change Agents
Foster Youth in Action is building an international national network of local foster youth-led groups - building relationships, exchange learning, and share important strategies for creating change.