Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

The Foundation focuses its work on several priorities, one of which is foster youth. The foundation works with partners to help transition-age foster youth in Los Angeles and New York City find their path to success. The Hilton Foundation works with partners to support foster youth as they emerge into adulthood, strengthen the systems that provide services to youth in care, and research best practices and needs in the field of child welfare.

The foundation highlights three key initiatives in its approach to working with foster youth:

• Increasing transition age youth self-sufficiency through improved college and career readiness, stronger caregivers, and special services for the most vulnerable youth
• Strengthening collaboration and alignment across the systems that influence foster youth outcomes
• Developing and disseminating knowledge for the field

Special attention is warranted for two particularly vulnerable sub-populations: pregnant and parenting foster youth, and foster youth who cross over into the juvenile justice system.

The Foundation’s strategy directly addresses the challenges foster youth face as they age out of the system, by supporting both programs that meet the needs of particularly vulnerable foster youth, and programs that give all foster youth the skills and support they need to succeed. In addition to this programmatic work, the Foundation supports collaboration and coordination across the systems and organizations that influence outcomes for transition age youth.

Our Global Early Childhood Development Initiative takes a holistic, two-generation approach to ensure support for parents/caregivers and their young children. By strengthening the capacity of public systems and community actors to support the well-being of both young children and their parents/caregivers, children ages 0-3 in underserved communities in Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, and the U.S. can be developmentally on track and ready for school and reach their full potential. 

Our current focus: 

• Fostering a two-generation approach focused on parents and young children together 
• Improving early childhood development outcomes through high-quality services for parents/caregivers and children, including psychosocial support and child care 
• Tailored support to specifically meet the needs of young parents under age 24
• Integrating early childhood support as part of health and other systems
• Engagement of men and the promotion of gender-equitable norms
• Building from the strengths and assets of parents/caregivers and community champions, including faith leaders, while elevating their voices in the process 
• Strengthening the global early childhood development field and facilitating learning across geographies 
• Supporting the development and use of population-wide tools for measuring early childhood outcomes