Explore Our Media Features

Read and listen to our latest collaborations

Annie E. Casey Foundation

Fostering Higher Education Webinar

In this webinar, the Annie E. Casey Foundation shares lessons and findings from a college-readiness effort focusing on youth in foster care. The session highlights promising strategies used in pilot programs at the Foundation‘s Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative® sites in Georgia and Iowa.

Annie E. Casey Foundation

How Homelessness and Systems Involvement Affect K–12 Success

The panel focuses on sharing research insight as well as successful practices that support students with foster care experiences in postsecondary education. Remarks address pressing issues facing foster youth during the pandemic and ways for institutions and individuals to advocate and support their specific needs.

Fostering Academic Achievement Nationwide (FAAN) Network

Webinar: Challenging the Myth of 3%: A Systematic Review of Educational Outcomes of SEFC

This webinar challenges the often cited statistic that only 3% of youth from foster care will go on to earn a bachelor’s degree before the age of 26, highlighting findings from a recent study that reviewed the most up to date foster care and higher education outcomes.

Article: Okpych, N. J., Whitman, K., Lee, J., Neria-Piña, L., Jackson, L. A., Day, M. (2025). Secondary and postsecondary education outcomes of students with experience in foster care: Systematic review of the literature from 2000-2023. AERA Open, 11(1), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584251331454

The Imprint

College Stability After Homelessness or Foster Care, with Maddy Day

On this week’s podcast Maddy Day of Maddy Day and Associates joins to talk about what it takes to provide stability on college campuses for youth who have experienced aging out of foster care, homelessness or both. She is helping to coordinate a Congressional briefing planned for 2026 on the subject. 

2026 Field Center Aging Out Podcast

Interview with Maddy Day, co-Founder of Fostering Academic Achievement Nationwide

Influenced by her family’s deep ties to child welfare, Maddy gained early insight into the realities facing non‑traditional families. Her career path ultimately led to the creation of FAAN in 2016, a network that grew from informal cross‑state conversations among practitioners that now includes more than twenty states. Maddy’s journey and FAAN’s expansion underscore the impact of connection, reliable data, persistent advocacy, and the importance of listening to students in creating equitable educational pathways for youth with experience in foster care.

San Diego State University HIED Forum

Supporting Postsecondary Students with Experiences in Foster Care

The panel focuses on sharing research insight as well as successful practices that support students with foster care experiences in postsecondary education. Remarks address pressing issues facing foster youth during the pandemic and ways for institutions and individuals to advocate and support their specific needs.

Democracy’s College

The Impact of Campus-Based Support Programming on Foster-Care Collegians’ Postsecondary Access and Retention

In this episode, OCCRL research assistant Chequita Brown talks with Maddy Day about the Fostering Success Michigan initiative and the impact of campus-based support programming on foster-care collegians' postsecondary access and retention. Maddy Day is a consultant for the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative at the Annie E. Casey Foundation

University of Illinois, Office of Community College Research and Leadership

A Framework to Approach Postsecondary Educational Program Design for College Students with Lived Experience in Foster Care

This article outlines how key federal and state policies and campus-based support programs employing an integrative framework are contributing to addressing the achievement gaps impacting this population

NPR

From Foster Care To Freshman Year

By the time she aged out of foster care, Jasmine Uqdah had spent nearly half her life in the system. On a summer day in 2008, Uqdah grabbed her duffel bag and two small garbage bags, and she stuffed everything she owned inside.

Go Solo

Make it equitable. Make an impact

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal and business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Maddy Day, Owner of Maddy Day LLC & Associates, located in Kalamazoo, MI, USA.

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