This month the MYVoice program of Ampersand Families is excited to announce a new grant to support “protective factors” for young people with experience in foster care. This grant, funded by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS), invests in the relationships, positive peer community, and leadership opportunities that all young people deserve as they grow into healthy and connected adults.
What is MYVoice?
MYVoice (also known as Minnesota Youth Voice) is the peer support and youth leadership program of Ampersand Families. We create opportunities for peer connections, creative outlets, and advocacy activities for Minnesota young people ages 12-22 who have lived experience in foster care and/or adoption.
Barriers to participation
As we do this work, we recognize that many young people have high barriers to participation when it comes to typical adolescent opportunities like these.
For example, some young people don’t have access to the internet and must rely on adult staff to share information or provide the physical technology needed to participate in virtual events. Other youth can only participate via postal mail correspondence. Some young people do not have access to art supplies or journals that could be used to process and express their complex life experiences. Others don’t have access to media, books, or other materials that reflect their unique life experiences. Still others are kept out of traditional school environments and therefore lack access to traditional extracurricular activities and age-appropriate leadership experiences.
Addressing the barriers
MYVoice bridges those gaps by providing books, art supply kits and journaling materials to youth in care, and by compensating young people for their creative works and their leadership activities. But even as we have been engaged in these activities, we knew there was a scale of need that we could not address, especially when it came to youth in the most restrictive settings. Youth who need and deserve to have positive peer and adult connections that can be sustained across any barrier.
This is why our new grant is so exciting! With these DPS funds we will hire a new MYVoice support staff person to greatly expand our mailings, virtual events, and leadership opportunities for youth—especially those in group homes, residential treatment centers, and juvenile corrections—multiplying the positive connections in their lives!
What we will do
We will send books to young people that reflect their lived experiences. We will mail supplies to create art, to connect with others, and to provide virtual advocacy and leadership opportunities. We will collaborate with mental health providers, lived experience experts, and other supportive adults to provide virtual workshops that will reach young people wherever they are, with activities that support their wellness, healing, and leadership potential.
With this grant the MYVoice values of connection, education, and change will impact many more young people, more effectively, and in a more sustained fashion. Watch us and lend your support!
Connect with MYVoice!
We invite you to connect with us by visiting our website, finding us on Instagram, connecting with program coordinator Emily on Facebook, or emailing myvoice@ampersandfamilies.org where you can also ask to get added to our monthly email list. Want to refer a young person to MYVoice? Click here.
