June 1, 2008

Qualitative Studies: Foster Youth Seen and Heard (Project FYSH): FY 2008 Final Report to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services

This final report discusses the activities and accomplishment of Project FYSH (Foster Youth Seen and Heard) for 2008. Project FYSH is designed to help Illinois researchers, child welfare professionals, policy makers, and the public understand with greater clarity the subjective meaning of life in care through the perspective of older youth and young adults who have been there. Consistently throughout the workshops, FYSH participants also emphasized the effects of foster care on their personal identities, values, and expectations for their adult lives. Findings from the three workshops are shared and indicate the ongoing influence of biological family members on foster youth, the unstable and emotionally painful experiences of foster care, the positive influence of experiences in foster care for the development of a robust and resilient perception of self, the appreciation the youth have for foster parents, and the more negative than positive post-adoptive experiences of the youth.