Annual Fellowship

Fellowship is paused for 2024

In spring 2024, we are not holding a Fellowship cohort, as we are focusing on imaginative power and crafting a new future with Fosters through our ongoing MN Promise campaign. While the Fellowship will be on pause for 2024, it will be back in 2025! For any Fosters who had been planning to apply in 2024, please reach out to me (Elena@fosteradvocates.org) for a conversation about how we can loop you into MN Promise leadership and advocacy opportunities over the next year until the 2025 Fellowship applications open up.

Are you a Minnesota Foster looking to be an advocate for systems change? Do you want to develop your strategic storytelling, leadership, and community mobilization skills? Do you want to invest in your leadership by learning with your peers—and get paid?

The Foster Advocates Fellowship connects Fosters across Minnesota through a paid opportunity to transform into activists and activators and join our growing network of leaders impacted by Foster care. 

  • Available to Minnesota residents age 18-26 years old with previous and/or current experience foster care experience

    • Exceptional candidates who don’t meet all of the above factors will be considered. Chat with Elena before applying!

  • Remote (zoom) cohort program from March to June; see session dates below.

    • Technology access or other barriers to participation? Note that in your application.

    • Final session may be in person with transportation/childcare/etc supported.

  • Paid opportunity: $20/hour stipend provided each month upon completion of cohort activities as compensation for Fellows’ leadership investment (for a program total of ~$1,000)

2023 Session dates

The Fellowship runs March 23rd through June 24th (meetings by zoom), and all meeting dates are set and final. When you apply for the Fellowship, you are committing to attend *all* of these dates and must identify any potential conflicts in the application. If you have multiple conflicts with these dates, please reach out about other leadership opportunities before the 2023 cohort.

March: Thursday the 23rd (6-8 pm), Saturday the 25th (12-4 pm, meal stipend provided), Thursday the 30th (6-8 pm)

April: Monday the 10th (6-8 pm), Saturday the 15th (12-4 pm, meal stipend provided), Thursday the 20th (6-8 pm), Monday the 24th (6-8 pm)

May: Thursday the 4th (6-8 pm), Saturday the 13th (12-4 pm, meal stipend provided), Saturday the 20th (12-3 pm, meal stipend provided)

June: Monday the 5th (6-8 pm), Saturday the 10th (12-4 pm, meal stipend provided), Thursday the 15th (6-8 pm)

Final Celebration: Saturday June 24th (details TBD: likely 1-6 pm, meal provided. Potentially in-person as COVID safety allows; transportation/childcare/etc provided).

In addition to Fellowship sessions, there will be ~2 hours of paid individual work time each month.

Fellowship Benefits

This is a paid opportunity ($20/hour by monthly stipend). Fellows can expect to develop:

• Familiarity with key equity issues in child welfare and associated systems

• Increased knowledge related to child welfare system (history, current practices, Minnesota structures)

• Individual leadership through:

○ Reflection and growth around personal strengths and leadership identity
○ Networking with other Fosters, advocates, and community partners
○ Expanded communication skills & strategies to share lived Foster experiences from a place of power

• Advocacy & community mobilization skills through:

○ Reflection on personal role and goals within advocacy for the Foster community
○ Creative problem-solving for the adaptive challenges of the foster care system
○ Exploring the role data plays in advocacy
○ Understanding the legislative process and effective lobbying

Upon cohort completion, Fellows will have multiple opportunities to continue their advocacy and leadership through Foster Advocates programming, research, and reform work, including our Community Board.

Our leadership principles

Our leadership work is grounded in these guiding principles, which are affirmed annually by our Community Board and graduating Fellows.

Review Leadership Principles

• Nothing about Fosters without Fosters. Those impacted by the system must be given the power to direct systems change, while not being alone in change-making work.

• Young people are experts and leaders now and deserve to be heard and valued for their voices, experiences, and ideas. 

• We believe deeply in the power of individual stories to spark change while using data to identify trends across the foster care experience.  

• To address the disproportionate impacts and systemic injustices in the foster care landscape, we focus on root causes and upstream thinking to guide advocacy priorities.

• Movements for change require adaptive leadership: leaning into curiosity around knowledge, practices, and behaviors to imagine and implement new possibilities.

• Cultivating community and advocacy are inherently intertwined. Advocacy happens within relationships and is transformational to individuals and communities. 

Congratulations to our 2022 Fellows!

Another powerful cohort! Six of our graduating Fellows were able to meet up for a program celebration in July.

Congratulations to our 2021 Fellows!

What an amazing inaugural year. We’re so thankful for the Fosters who invested in their learning with our 2021 cohort and shared their time and expertise with Foster Advocates.