February brings awareness to Youth Leadership Month. The aim is to inspire youth to use their voices and talents to make a positive impact in their communities and beyond. Youth Leadership Month also allows an opportunity to share resources to educate child welfare professionals about youth voice and to encourage youth leadership. 

Your Lawyer Works for You! What You Need to Know 

The “Your Lawyer Works for You!” videos are a collaboration between the Children’s Commission and the Texas Network of Youth Services (TNOYS) Young Adult Leadership Council (YALC) and feature young adults formerly in foster care discussing their experiences with their attorneys, articulating basics about the attorney-client relationship, and helping youth understand how to resolve problems with their attorneys. The videos are available on the Children’s Commission's YouTube Youth Voice Playlist.

Normalcy Resources

Engaging in normal, age-appropriate activities and experiences is a critical component of healthy child development, however, cultivating normal childhood experiences while in foster care can be challenging. Providing normalcy in foster care includes managing risk, giving children the opportunity to act like children, and encouraging the development of a child’s interests and strengths. A few resources include:

• Normalcy Matters: A Guide to Supporting Children & Youth in Texas Foster Care and Companion Video, Texas CASA
• Normalcy for Children and Youth in Foster Care Roundtable Report

Guides and Handbooks: 

• Texas Child Welfare Law Bench Book Child and Youth Voice Chapter
• Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid Aging Out: A Guide For Those "Aging Out" of Foster Care In Texas, Eighth Ed.; 2021
• DFPS Foster Care Handbook for Youth:
• English version
• Spanish version
• DFPS Rights of Children in Foster Care

Websites for Youth in Foster Care: 

• Foster Care Alumni of America
• I am a Youth in Foster Care 
• Texas Foster Youth Justice Project
• Texas Network of Youth Services
• Texas Youth Helpline

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For a complete list of Resource Letters, please visit the Children's Commission webpage. Information provided by the Children’s Commission should not be read as a commentary by the Supreme Court of Texas or any other court. The Children’s Commission website is not equipped to facilitate dialogue or conversation about matters related to the information in this communique. For more information about the Children’s Commission, please visit our website.

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