Build Authentic Partnerships

The Ele­vat­ing Youth Engage­ment (EYE) train­ing cur­ricu­lum is now avail­able online — at no cost. Devel­oped by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion in part­ner­ship with Cetera Inc., the cur­ricu­lum offers child wel­fare agen­cies and youth-serv­ing orga­ni­za­tions a clear, action­able guide to build­ing effec­tive, authen­tic part­ner­ships with young peo­ple who have expe­ri­enced fos­ter care.

For young lead­ers, EYE pro­vides the skills and con­fi­dence they need to advo­cate for them­selves and their peers — and to become informed, empow­ered par­tic­i­pants in shap­ing poli­cies and ser­vices that affect their lives.

There are many frame­works for youth engage­ment — but EYE goes fur­ther. It’s a com­pre­hen­sive ​“how-to” cur­ricu­lum that offers con­crete strate­gies and real-time oppor­tu­ni­ties for adult sup­port­ers and young lead­ers to apply the lessons through exercises.

Code­signed and test­ed by young peo­ple with fos­ter care expe­ri­ence, includ­ing Jim Casey Fel­lows, the cur­ricu­lum draws on more than two decades of prac­tice across the Foun­da­tion’s Jim Casey Youth Oppor­tu­ni­ty Ini­tia­tive^® and its nation­al network.