Youth Today
Youth Voices
-
2.2KCasting My First Ballot — Every Vote Matters, Even if it Doesn’t
After having phone-banked and canvassed numerous times without being able to cast a ballot, it felt wonderful to walk into the building...
-
3.9KAn Unspoken Voice
With the InsideOUT Writers program, I devote myself to using my voice to help others, but it wasn’t always this way. I...
-
2.5KYouth Helping Youth: ServiceWorks VISTAs Reflect on 9/11 and Serving Their Generation
To kick off its third year, ServiceWorks – a youth development program from AmeriCorps, the Citi Foundation and Points of Light –...
-
3.9KAutism: An Experience, a Story, a Proposal
My name is Benjamin Adams and I have autism. I was diagnosed with autism when I was 2 years old and have...
-
4.9KInside Out Writers: An Introduction
I was 15 and already convicted. Shepherded by probation officers up and down the halls at Central prior to any official sentencing,...
-
1.8KA Message to Queer Youth in the Wake of Orlando
For some, the ubiquity and high frequency of mass shootings in the United States is nothing less than shocking. But many teens...
-
3.6KLegalized Torture: A Solitary Confinement Experience
"After just 24 hours, I testify that solitary confinement is hell on earth. Solitary confinement is legalized torture," says Anyssa Williams, a...
-
2.6KNo Job, No Home, No Green Card: Crashing Into 21
“Do you know you’re an illegal immigrant?” I was 19 when my social worker asked me this question. Shocked and confused, I...
-
1.6KPreventive Services Saved My Family
I was pregnant when I aged out of foster care. My boyfriend and I wanted to have the baby, but I worried...
-
1.8KWatch What Happens When Former NYC Foster Kids Speak Truth to Power
You can hear the frustration — and need — in each of their voices as this group of young adults, who grew...
-
1.8KWho Will I Be As an Adult?
In all those years I was bounced around, I didn’t know where I belonged or what would happen when I aged out...
-
1.7KWhat Do We Owe Each Other?
A teenage girl on the road to high school graduation struggles to stay connected to her birth parents while coping with their...
-
I Choose Foster Care
I have been in foster care before, but this is the first time I chose to be. Before, I was ashamed to...
-
1.6KLearning What Family Is at Age 16
It’s no Disney show, but after more than 16 placements, Selena reflects on how stability and safety in a foster home help...
-
1.5KGender-Nonconforming Foster Youth Found Acceptance, Concrete Help at High School
A teenage writer explores the difference adults made in his life through acceptance: “School is a way for me to not turn...
-
3.9KThe American Dream Delayed by Addiction
A young writer reflects on how his father’s addiction impacted his family, his growing up and his own substance use. “After everything,...
-
Because I’m Free
A young writer’s story indicates many places where youth workers and systems could have intervened — healing child sexual abuse, treating drug...
-
Getting Myself Back: Living in Foster Care with People Who Let Me Be a Child
The last fight between my mother and stepfather was severe enough to get them both arrested. With nowhere else to go, we...
-
2.9KNo Such Thing As a Perfect Family
Once I entered the foster care system, I was no longer this happy little girl who hid all of her secrets. I...
-
2.3KMy Trauma Grew into Motivation to Help Others
I’ve been abusing alcohol since I was a teen. I faced a lot of trauma as a young kid from a poor...
