COVID-19 Community Response: A Conversation with Vanessa Hernandez & Kate Teague

Forward Promise Co-Director, Dr. Howard Stevenson, talks with Vanessa Hernandez and Kate Teague of California Youth Connection (CYC) about the unique challenges that current and former foster youth are experiencing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. CYC is a Forward Promise grantee organization.

Biography:
For more than 30 years, California Youth Connection has been at the forefront of a fundamental paradigm shift in child welfare policy in California and beyond, placing foster youth voice at the center of policymaking for the first time in history.

Vanessa Hernandez serves as Deputy Director of Advocacy and Impact and shepherds the organization’s legislative goals to actualization while developing youth into leaders who harness the power of their voices and experiences. Kate Teague is the Lead Community Advocacy Coordinator, where she works with the CYC Chapters in LA County providing technical assistance to support CYC members in developing their leadership and putting their campaigns for change into action both locally and regionally.

Resources:
COVID-19 Community Impact and Response
California Youth Connection
Forward Promise