Leadership Circles:
National Leadership Circle: Centering Lived Experience as Leadership The National Leadership Circle was created with a clear understanding: people who have personally navigated child welfare systems hold critical insight about how those systems should change. The yearlong fellowship brought together leaders with lived experience to strengthen their skills in advocacy, narrative change, and systems influence while building a supportive community of peers committed to transforming how families are supported. Too often, individuals with lived experience are invited to share their stories but not to share power. They may be present in meetings where decisions are made, yet still carry the weight of unequal authority and limited influence. The National Leadership Circle offered something different—a space where leaders strengthened their voice, built community, and developed tools to navigate and shift those dynamics. Over the course of 12 months, fellows engaged in a comprehensive learning journey focused on advocacy, narrative change, governance, and shared leadership. Fellows received compensation for their time, reflecting Foster America’s commitment to valuing lived expertise as a professional contribution rather than volunteer consultation. The fellowship concluded with Beyond Survival, a public learning series created and led by fellows. In these sessions, fellows translated lived experience into strategies for change. They examined issues, such as housing instability and family separation, barriers to education for youth in foster care, and how systems can better respond to trauma. Each conversation connected personal insight with policy and practice, offering lessons for leaders working to redesign systems. The series modeled what shared leadership can look like in action. By strengthening leaders who have experienced the system firsthand, the National Leadership Circle helped shift how knowledge, leadership, and power are shared across the child welfare field.
Technology Leadership Circle: Creating Tools That Benefit Communities The Technology Leadership Circle brought together leaders with lived experience in the child welfare system who are interested in building technology solutions to better support youth and families. Fellows explored how digital tools might address real challenges young people face, working alongside technologists, researchers, and collaborators from the MIT Media Lab to shape early concepts grounded in lived experience. Through collaborative design sessions, fellows developed five early-stage concepts. Foster Files proposes a youth-facing digital wallet where young people can securely store and manage vital documents, such as school and medical records. Transit Central envisions a dedicated rideshare platform that connects youth to safe, reliable transportation while creating earning opportunities for young adults with foster care experience. Other concepts included Care 2 Connect, a platform that helps youth assess compatibility with potential foster families; Community Gaming, a virtual space designed to foster connection and community among youth; and Goal Booster, a tool that helps young people set goals and build a roadmap toward them with guidance from mentors. In September, fellows presented these concepts at the Fostering Futures Forum, co-hosted with collaborators from the MIT Media Lab, where child welfare leaders, technologists, and funders explored how technology can advance belonging and well- being for young people. By bringing lived expertise directly into the design process, the Technology Leadership Circle helps ensure emerging technologies reflect the realities— and the ideas—of the young people they are meant to support.
Innovation is stronger when lived experience drives what gets built.
Building leadership
capacity ensures those who have navigated the system lead its transformation.
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26 | FOSTER AMERICA 2025 ANNUAL REPORT
WWW.FOSTER-AMERICA.ORG |
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