California Youth Connection (CYC)

By The Imprint staff reports

With Californians hunkered down to stop the vicious spread of coronavirus, three Los Angeles County sisters are stranded 400 miles from the places they call home, with no idea when they will be able to return.

The California Youth Connection has announced Robin Allen as its new interim executive director, following a chaotic few weeks for the foster youth advocacy group that saw former director Haydee Cuza resign after laying off more than half of the organization’s staff in the middle of a global pandemic. 

I thought I had fought my way to a better life, especially after the last few years that have proven to be harder than when I was in foster care. Being a former foster youth, there is one thing that you learn and that is to find your strength and fight to make yourself and the world better.

Following two weeks of chaotic upheaval that felt like a personal blow to many longtime advocates in California’s child welfare circles, all employees let go in layoffs at the nationally recognized foster youth group, the California Youth Connection, have been rehired.

Last week, a community advocacy coordinator for one of the nation’s most prominent foster youth organizations started building a webinar to provide young people in northern California access to self-soothing techniques as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the state. 

Haydée Cuza, who helped establish the California Youth Connection (CYC) advocacy group in 1988 and became its executive director in 2016, resigned Monday night, less than a week after she laid off most of her staff in the middle of the global coronavirus pandemic.

In an astounding response to the coronavirus pandemic that stunned the California child welfare field, one of the most vaunted foster youth advocacy organizations in the nation laid off most of its staff this week, the majority former foster youth.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to create the county’s first Youth Commission, answering long-standing calls from youth advocates to give young people a seat at the table shaping policies and programs that impact their lives.