P3.G132: Supporting Transition Aged Youth in Foster Care – Community Engaged Development of Empowering Youth App

Background: Transition-aged youth (TAY) in foster care often reach adulthood without permanency. Frequent placement changes, mistrust of adults and systems, lack of knowledge of available resources contribute to inadequate preparation for independent living and poor health and education outcomes. Little is known regarding Young Adults with Lived Experience (YALE) in foster care and stakeholder perspectives regarding transition planning. Apps are used to support TAY with chronic illnesses transition to adult health care. A multidisciplinary task force with academics, community stakeholders and foster parents convened to address needs of TAY. The objective was to conduct a qualitative, community-engaged needs assessment with YALE and community stakeholders to assess barriers and facilitators to successful transition to independent living and inform the development of an app to empower TAY aging out of foster care.

Methods: Purposeful sampling recruited focus group participants at TAY-supporting community agencies. YALE were ages 18-24, English-speaking and had experienced foster care. Community stakeholders were English speaking and supported TAY. Participants received $20 for participation. Focus groups (virtual or in-person) averaged 76 minutes.

Needs assessment focus groups discussed access to resources, transition experiences and app ideas. Focus groups were audio-recorded, de-identified, transcribed verbatim and analyzed with NVivo. Transcript evaluation was double-coded and used an inductive, text-driven approach to qualitative thematic analysis. The final codebook had themes and representative quotes with any discrepancies resolved by consensus.

Based on needs assessment findings, we requested and reviewed app development proposals and contracted with a vendor with a shared passion for community involvement and TAY. Weekly/bi-weekly meetings with multidisciplinary task force and vendor yielded initial mock-ups and content ideas. Focus groups with YALE and community stakeholders reviewed mock-ups, prototypes, and provided feedback. Focus groups were transcribed verbatim and de-identified. Disagreements were resolved by consensus.

Results: Needs

Assessment: We hosted 5 focus groups from 10/2021-12/2021: 2 YALE [n=3, 2, and 2 completed semi-structured interviews] and 3 stakeholders [n=4,5,6], age range 18-60+, mean 8 years experience). Many participants reported difficulties transitioning, barriers to accessing health care and finding resources. All participants felt that an app would improve TAY’s transition to independent living.

App Development: We completed 3 app development focus groups from 7/2022-2/2023 (6 YALE and 11 stakeholders). Aspects of design, content, storage capabilities and features were discussed and feedback incorporated. App coding completed March 2023, beta-testing/trouble-shooting 3/2023-1/2024, and launched in 1/2024. Both YALE and stakeholders overwhelmingly liked color scheme, personalization, to-do checklists, and document uploading. Suggestions included contrasting icons, sexual and reproductive health content and resource organization. Funding limited video uploading, chat and interactive features.

Conclusion: Community engagement with YALE and community stakeholders spearheaded by a multi-disciplinary task force and coordinated with a community–focused technology vendor successfully developed an app to support Transition-Aged Youth in foster care.