In the summer of 2023, YouthNPower: Transforming Care launched the first direct cash transfer pilot in the United States designed by and for young people who had aged out of foster care. Over the course of a year, 100 youth received $1,000 monthly in unconditional direct cash payments. In addition, Independent of these payments, they were invited to join a participatory research process that sought not just to document the impacts of the cash – but to analyze, challenge, and re-imagine the systems that have failed them.

The pilot revealed the transformative potential of unconditional cash to help young people emerging from foster care to experience stability and a sense of control over their own lives – to truly experience a transition to adulthood. Experiences of security and self-determination form a foundation of independence that is crucial for young adults transitioning from a system that dictated all aspects of their lives. Many young people leaving care are worried about what is ahead. The consistent financial support provided by the pilot created a cushion that mediated the significant material precarity of their lives after foster care, and positively bolstered participants’ sense of well-being, possibility about the future, and their own freedom. Young people in the pilot described this shift as their beginning to move from struggling to survive to feeling like they were living in the world and having a place in it.   

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