The cafe was held in March 2014 with extensive involvement from youth and agency workers from across the state. The discussions were quite fruitful and led to a series of recommendations on strengthening youth-agency partnerships. The report is available here.

Goals. The Youth Leadership Café is based on the Community Café model of engagement, partnership, and action planning. The goal is to develop the youth-family-community partnerships that support the leadership of current and former foster youth while encouraging conversational leadership and democratic engagement. Attendees can form social connections, identify issues and resources, and formulate an action plan, including steps for sharing what is learned.

Café. The purpose is to generate an action plan outlining how youth will become leaders with the assistance of supportive adults. This action plan will provide tangible resources and steps that participants will follow to encourage leadership in the youth. During the café, participants sit at a “café table” and discuss assigned questions related to the event’s overall theme. The participants rotate from one table to the next and share feedback and generated ideas at the end. Participants will be invited from various counties in NC.

Partners. CFFACE will co-host the event with Strong Able Youth Speaking Out (SaySo), a substitute care advocacy agency based in Durham, NC.

Funding. Grant funding received from NC State University’s Office of Extension, Engagement, and Economic Development. CFFACE will pursue future funding from the NC Division of Social Services to implement co-training and facilitate co-training networks.