Youth-in-Transition Policy Summit
Policy Workshop Application
Deadline: January 6, 2023

April 4 and 5, 2023
Multi-Agency State Office Building
195 North 1950 West, Salt Lake City, Utah

The Utah Office of Substance Use and Mental Health/Department of Health and Human Services and the Center for Law and Social Policy invite you to submit an application to the Youth-in-Transition Policy Summit to be held at Salt Lake City, Utah on April 4 and 5, 2023. The dual purposes of the Policy Summit are:

• to showcase state or local governmental-level policies designed to improve services for transition-age youth (approximately between 16 and 25), and
• to examine the levels of youth engagement in the development and implementation of these policies. We hope that through the careful analysis of these policies, we can learn valuable lessons on developing youth-in-transition policies and ways to improve youth engagement in that process.

We are looking for innovative policies that have been implemented for at least six months, preferably twelve months, in the following areas that help youth transition into adulthood:

• Advancing housing stability and security

• Eliminating barriers to self-sufficiency (e.g., child care, transportation, guaranteed income, accessing entitlements such as SSDI and Medicaid])

• Facilitating transition from child-serving to adult-serving systems (e.g., medical/physical health, education)

• Developing neutral safety net for youth with inadequate formal or informal support (e.g. youth leaving state custody, youth experiencing homelessness, trafficking victims)

• Maintaining services for youth exiting state custody (e.g., child welfare system between the ages of 23 and 26)

• Obtaining competitive and integrated employment (with or without pre-employment preparation such as workplace learning, sheltered employment, and internship.)

• Approaches that systematically incorporate youth input into decisions about service offerings and/or budget

• Braid funding from various child and adult serving systems for TAY

If you are interested in presenting, please fill out the application form along with the rubric to self-rate youth engagement in the various stages of the policy development and implementation process. We are looking for policies at various stages of youth engagement (from none, to initiated by youth) and programs that welcome input from young people on ways to improve youth engagement. Regardless of how much or how little you included youth in the development and implementation of your policy, we encourage you to submit your policy for consideration.

The Policy Summit will be held hybrid and the presenters and participants may choose to attend in person or virtually.  Each presentation is 50 minutes long with 25 minutes to present the policy and 25 minutes to have a dialogue with the Youth Panel on the level of youth engagement. The Youth Panel will have access to your self-assessment and they will analyze your policy based on your ratings and rubric in real time. It may be helpful to have a youth advocate to join you in the policy presentation. This format is highly interactive and the Youth Panel may agree or disagree with your self-assessment from their youth perspectives. We encourage applicants to view the presentation as an opportunity to help the youth-in-transition field to enhance youth engagement in policy development.

For any questions, please contact Ming Wang (available until 1/6/2023) at 801-209-2621, mwang@utah.gov; Jessica Makin at 385-270-4090, jmakin@utah.gov; or Nia West-Bey, at 202-906-8015, nwestbey@clasp.org

Open the Application and Get Started!

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