2024 Passport to Careers State Conference highlights: Helping foster youth navigate transitions

On Tuesday, May 14, the Washington Passport Network hosted the 16th annual Passport to Careers State Conference. The virtual event provided an opportunity for more than 180 attendees — representing schools, community-based organizations and government agencies — to connect with fellow professionals from across the state, participate in interactive workshops and hear from an array of speakers.

The Passport to Careers program was established in 2008 and is a nationally recognized model for supporting students who have experienced foster care or homelessness. This annual convening brings together professionals from across the state of Washington to build partnerships, inquire deeply and seek solutions for the most vulnerable youth in our community to achieve their career and college goals.

May is National Foster Care Month, so the conference theme, “Navigate Transitions,” was especially fitting. Speakers with lived experience in foster care talked about how challenging transitions are to systems-involved youth and how direct service providers can ease those transitions. “The abrupt and often destabilizing changes ingrained in the experience of foster care leave lasting wounds that add complexity to the process of transitions for the rest of our lives,” said Neveah Brewer, a service provider at Treehouse and alum of the foster care system. “I hope that if you gain anything from the conference today, it’s a newfound understanding of why transitions are so important — and how you as a provider can make navigating transitions easier, and more successful, for the youth you serve.”

Dawn Cypriano-McAferty, assistant director at the Washington Student Achievement Council, echoed that sentiment. “Part of young adulthood is figuring out who we are, gaining our independence, finding our freedom, and standing on wobbly legs as we step into adulthood,” she said. “People who shepherd us through transitional times are pivotal to our success.”

Keynote speaker Dr. Adam Starks, founder and CEO at MNDYRR and award-winning author, presented a framework for empowering foster youth to navigate paths to success in college and careers. Building on insights from his own time in foster care, Dr. Starks emphasized the importance of helping students set goals, prepare for transitions and build support networks, as well as maintain a positive mindset and develop resilience. “[Foster care] is only part of their story,” he said. “They can do anything that a child that had normal or less traumatic circumstances can do.”

In addition to hearing from speakers, attendees participated in workshops on topics including supporting LGBTQIA+ youth in foster care, curriculum design, preparing systems-involved youth for adulthood, supporting students experiencing homelessness and exploring apprenticeships. Workshops provided both practical, hands-on ideas relevant to attendees’ day-to-day work and opportunities to explore new, inspiring topics and gain fresh perspectives.

The day ended with a panel featuring three speakers who have lived experience with foster care. By sharing their powerful personal stories, they provided a real-world view of how direct service providers can provide advocacy, stability, empathetic guidance and hope to foster youth. “[My social worker] would always ask me, ‘What are you going to do, what’s your next step, where are you going to go?’” said panelist Jessica Griffiths. “She didn’t push me to make a decision, but she helped me make my own decisions. She just gave me opportunity after opportunity.”

Attendees noted that the lived experience panelists’ heartfelt stories reminded them why they do this work and inspired them to persist in reaching out to students, even when it’s complicated or time-consuming. “Thank you for helping us understand how we can show up and hold space for our young folks,” said Halley Shriber, apprenticeship outreach navigator at ANEW.

Save the date for next year’s conference, which will take place May 6–7, 2025, at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Seattle Airport.