Relationships Matter for Youth to Thrive!

Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy | McCormick Center for Child Advocacy and Policy
Post B.A Certificate in Adolescent Advocacy Program

March 27, 2019 from 5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
School of Business – Room 140

When young people who have faced serious challenges tell the story of how they made positive changes in their lives, they often talk about a significant relationship as a critical part of that positive change. This is particularly important for youth who are or have been involved in the child welfare, juvenile justice, or the mental health system where workers have a critical opportunity to help build transformational relationships. Francie Zimmerman, senior associate at the Center for the Study of Social Policy, will present findings from the Center’s recent research and report: Transformational Relationships for Youth Success that explores the power of relationships through interviews with youth, staff, and supervisors. She will also share Youth Thrive strategies and tools to build protective and promotive factors.

Her lecture will include information about:

• What workers do to form transformational relationships with youth.
• How relationships help youth change.
• Ways to apply these ideas to your work with young people.
• Recommendations for what public agencies and organizations can do to support relationship building.
• New Youth Thrive Coaching Tool and Youth Thrive Survey instrument that support this work.

Speaker: Francie Zimmerman

Francie Zimmerman is a senior associate at the Center for the Study of Social Policy and works primarily on the Youth Thrive initiative, focusing on adolescents in child welfare and juvenile justice systems. She coordinates Youth Thrive’s National Network and supports New Jersey’s implementation efforts. Previously, Zimmerman was director of family services for Acelero Learning Head Start centers in North Philadelphia and Camden, NJ. In philanthropy, Zimmerman established and managed the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s Child Abuse Prevention Program, making grants to national nonprofit organizations for over a decade. For many years, she was a consultant to the F. B. Heron Foundation which promoted asset building, homeownership and economic development strategies in low-income communities. Early in her career, she was an advocate for children in foster care, a special needs adoption caseworker, and assistant to the director of New York City’s secure detention facility for children, ages 10-15 years old. She has served on several advisory boards, including Project FUTURES and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Knowledge into Action Committee. Zimmerman has a master’s degree from Hunter College School of Social Work and a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College, Columbia University.

For more information or to register to attend, please contact Mary Anne Fanning-Lauria.