The Delaware Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) is an organization made up of children and youth in foster care or who have aged out of foster care in Delaware. Their tag line is “Nothing about us without us.” They have been consultants to Delaware legislators and non-profit organizations and have been responsible for improving the way the system cares for those placed in foster care.
On August 8th, five members of the Independent Living for Young Adults (ILYA) team attended the annual conference YAC has every summer at Delaware State University. We had a table at the conference where we handed out information to youth in New Castle County so they can be in touch with needs they have that we may be able to assist with. We also interacted with youth in workshops open to adults and had lunch with them in the college cafeteria.
The keynote speaker was a young man who aged out of foster care and then went on to a very successful career and is now offering support and encouragement to others experiencing family disruption. Watch next week for more information on the conference.