Centering Racial Equity In Practitioners’ Work with Youth of Color with Foster Care Experience: A New Assessment Tool

Background and Purpose: Youth of color are disproportionally represented in the United States foster care system. A study by the National Center for Juvenile Justice found that in 2020, the proportion of Native American youth in foster care was 2.78 times higher than their proportion in the general population, and the proportion of Black youth in the foster care system was 1.65 times higher. It is crucial for practitioners working with young people with foster care experience to be able to meaningfully support their racial and ethnic identities in an ongoing effort to center racial equity. We created the 10-item Racial Equity in Practice Survey Instrument (REPSI) to assess youths’ perceptions of their interactions with practitioners (in our case, educational advocates and independent living service providers) in regard to supporting their racial identity and creating a welcoming, comfortable environment within which to work together. This presentation shares this measure as a tool for use in the field and reviews assessments of the measure’s face and content validity as assessed by young people with foster care experience and youth-serving practitioners, as well as estimates of internal reliability.

Methods: Focus groups were conducted with four young adults of color with foster care experience to assess their impressions of the survey instrument. In addition, 19 foster youth-serving practitioners from across the US and in various fields (e.g., higher education, youth advocacy, child welfare) participated in a survey assessing their impression of the instrument. Finally, internal reliability was assessed by calculating a Cronbach’s alpha using survey data from 23 young adults with foster care experience following their participation in an educational advocacy-focused postsecondary support intervention.

Results: Overall, both young adults and practitioners felt the REPSI achieved the goal of meaningfully assessing whether youths’ racial identity needs are being met by providers. Young adults also indicated that their comfort level responding to the survey would depend on factors such as feeling safe (i.e. immigration status), strength/nature of their relationship with their service provider, and the service provider’s demographics. It was suggested that having the option to respond anonymously may encourage more honest feedback and reduce fears of losing services. Most practitioners felt that receiving responses from their clients on this measure would improve their practice by helping them identify strengths and gaps. They felt that youths’ responses could inform where practitioners need to shift or adjust their support efforts, how to encourage and engage youth in conversations about racial identity, and training topics related to serving youth with diverse demographics. An internal reliability analysis resulted in a Cronbach’s α=0.932, indicating high internal reliability.

Conclusion and Implications: Practitioners need better tools to assess how well they are connecting with their young clients of color. The REPSI is one brief, easy to use tool that can be used by service providers to ensure that they are meeting their youths’ needs and supporting their racial identities.