Foster America

We supported ten fellows in Cohort 4, five fellows in Cohort 5, eight fellows in Cohort 6, and four Senior Fellows. When recruiting for our sixth cohort of fellows, we received 312 applications for eight positions, resulting in a selection rate of 2.5%.Our fourth cohort of fellows graduated in April 2021, and we conducted an in-depth evaluation of their fellowship experiences and impact. Several themes emerged from our evaluation effort that help to illustrate the ways in which Foster America fellows enable systems change. These themes include, in order of prevalence:1. Practices: Fellows most often changed or developed new practices regarding workforce development and engagement; improved services for children and families; and engagement of children, families and communities in the workplace.2. Relationships and Connections: Fellows helped to build communication channels and/or collaborative relationships between and among different government entities and with community groups and members.3. Policies: Fellows helped drive planning and implementation around Family First and facilitated data-sharing agreements.4. Resource flows: Fellows helped to secure additional financial resources and prompt different ways of allocating resources.5. Power Dynamics: Fellows helped to create structures that shift power toward children, youth and families, in ways that either amplify these perspectives in informing the work or, less often, give them decision-making power.6. Mental models: Fellows helped shed light on areas often overlooked by agencies (e.g. how language is used, more upstream thinking about prevention).In late 2021, we launched a strategic planning effort to gather learnings from the community, from stakeholders and lived experts, and from the field more broadly in order to map the most pressing issues that the child welfare system faces today and identify our place of impact within it.