Due to weather-related technical difficulties, this session has been rescheduled to January 27, 2-3pm ET/ 11am-12pm PT. Please see below for more information and to register for the new date. 

If you previously registered for the 12/2/25 session, your registration has already been transferred to the new date. Don't forget to update your calendar!

Hear from longtime education and employment leaders, Craig Miller (Life Learning Academy) and Michele Clark (Youth Employment Partnership), who know the timeless importance of multiple pathways programs, and the timely challenges and opportunities these programs face today.

Join us for an intimate conversation with Michele and Craig, as we explore the lessons they have learned from decades leading Life Learning Academy and Youth Employment Program (YEP). This discussion will span education, youth employment, housing, and reengagement support for opportunity youth.

If you have ever funded or considered funding reengagement centers, youth employment programs, alternative schools, or other multiple pathways programs, this conversation is for you. Join us on December 2, and bring your own lessons learned and considerations for the future.

Hear about the Youth Law Center’s Adolescent Development Project, which brings together researchers, young people and families to address the fundamental mismatch between foster care systems and the needs of adolescents.

The Adolescent Development Project is designed to build consensus about what young people need to advance well being and develop systems solutions that will more effectively meet their needs.

Project participants shared what they have learned so far about aligning the foster care system with the needs of adolescents, including:

• A synthesis of research by some of the nation's leading adolescent development researchers, along with findings and recommendations for policy and practice. See the consensus statement recently published in Child and Family Services Review – Consensus Statement on Developmentally Appropriate Policy and Practice for Adolescents in Foster Care;

• How lived experts compared the research findings to their own experiences to shape the final consensus that was developed;

• Examples of how communities are testing the ideas that emerged from the consensus, and

• The tools and training that have been developed to advocate for developmentally informed reforms across the country.

This virtual meeting featured Angela LoBue with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, and Jennifer Rodriguez with the Youth Law Center, researchers who played a key role in developing the consensus statement and now working in partnership with communities, and representatives of a community that is testing the application of the research.

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Join GTY, YTFG and the National Collaborative for Transformative Youth Policy for an important conversation about developing a viable pathway to economic justice for young people.

Young people deserve economic and workforce development policies that enable them and their families to thrive. This session will feature young people and field leaders discussing how the current economic and workforce policies are impacting youth and share a vision for economic justice that would allow all young people to thrive.

This program is free and open to all. GTY’s webinars and funder learning opportunities are made possible through the time and expertise of presenters from the field.

In the spirit of transparency, GTY will make available the list of webinar participants to presenters upon request, unless the registrant requests to remain anonymous (please indicate your preference via the registration form).

Speakers

• Dina Emam, Program Associate, Center for Economic Opportunity, The Annie E. Casey Foundation

• Juan De Los Santos, New Deal for Youth Changemaker

• Alex Dray, Director of Organizing, Young People’s Alliance

• MaKaila Eddings, Founder, Griot Sisters

This webinar is sponsored by Grantmakers for Thriving Youth. Co-Sponsors include National Collaborative for Transformative Youth Policy and Youth Transition Funders Group.

In a critical briefing on education for youth facing homelessness and foster care, national experts Barbara Duffield (SchoolHouse Connection) and Kathleen McNaught (ABA Center for Children and the Law) discussed urgent federal challenges and the steps funders can take in these uncertain times.

In this conversation, Barbara and Kathy explained how federal actions and threats may impact educational support programs like McKinney-Vento, and which critical services for students experiencing homelessness and foster care are at stake. Students experiencing homelessness and foster care face interconnected and multi-faceted challenges, including school mobility and systemic barriers. The landscape of federal, state, and local laws impacting them is complex.

Here are actions you can take today:

1. Provide general operating support to organizations advocating for youth experiencing homelessness and foster care, especially those connected to state and local leaders, as well as youth and families.

2. Support advocacy, including litigation efforts, that seek to defend and protect educational rights, services, and supports.

3. Fund technical assistance and capacity-building for state and local-level education agencies and advocates.

4. Invest in organizing and mobilization efforts of local constituents to engage with elected officials, especially federal policymakers.

5. Support efforts to translate complex policy challenges into accessible, actionable information.

6. In addition to prioritizing the unique needs of individual student populations, prioritize funding that addresses issues of intersectionality.

7. Maintain or increase investments in federal and state-level policy work.

speakers includeD:

• Barbara Duffield – Executive Director, SchoolHouse Connection

• Kathleen McNaught – Associate Director, ABA Center on Children and the Law

This collaborative learning opportunity is co-sponsored by Grantmakers for Thriving Youth and Funders for the Education Success of Students Experiencing Homelessness, Child Welfare, and Juvenile Justice.

Sponsored by Funders Together to End Homelessness (FTEH), and co-sponsored by YTFG and Funders for Justice, this webinar featured speakers from the UpEND movement, which YTFG had previously featured at our in-person and virtual meetings. 

Learning Objectives:

• Differentiate between reformist and abolitionist (or non-reformist) reforms

• Articulate the difference between youth/family homelessness and the child welfare (aka family policing) system

• Describe the key components of Funders Together's policy framework

speakers includeD:

• Elisabeth Cutler, May & Stanley Smith Charitable Trust, YTFG member

• Michael Durham, Funders Together the End Homelessness

This webinar was sponsored by Funders Together to End Homelessness. Co-Sponsors included Funders for Justice and Youth Transition Funders Group.

Washington State reduced homelessness among unaccompanied youth and young adults by 40% after launching a concerted campaign to do so in 2016. While we will not rest on our laurels, we celebrate this life-saving success, especially in the context of the regression represented by the Supreme Court’s ruling on Johnson v. Grants Pass.

Join this discussion to hear the funder perspective on Yes to Yes, a lauded public-private partnership. After an overview of what the project accomplished, we will focus on how funders worked in collaboration and adapted to feedback in real time, highlighting the cross-system (education, criminal-legal, foster care, etc.) work that proved essential. The conversation will highlight transferable lessons that funders in other states can embrace, including strategies applicable across all age groups of people living with housing instability.

Learning Objectives

• Describe three accomplishments of Yes to Yes in Washington State

• Name an example of how Yes to Yes’ funders adapted their approach based on feedback from partners in real time

• Understand how other states can replicate Washington’s success

You will receive a unique Zoom link once a Funders Together staff person has approved your registration.  

Speakers

• Sheila Babb Anderson (she/her), Campion Advocacy Fund, President, Housing & Homelessness

• Paula Carvalho (she/her), Program Officer- Youth Homelessness, Raikes Foundation

• Marie Groark (she/her), Managing Director, Schultz Family Foundation

This webinar is sponsored by Funders Together to End Homelessness. Co-Sponsors include Grantmakers for Education, Grantmakers for Thriving Youth, and Youth Transition Funders Group.

On October 20th, YTFG Fellows Angel Jackson, Carmen Noyola, Lucero Noyola and Kera Pingree shared ways in which systems did and did not support them as parents, how systems and institutions can be more responsive to their needs and the needs of their children, and their ideas for how foundations and communities can partner to better support young parents. This conversation laid the foundation for the November 4th YTFG network meeting, which included a discussion about policy solutions for young parents and their children.