The Texas Institute for Child & Family Wellbeing’s Texas Youth Permanency Study (TYPS) is a 5 year study which aims to capture the experiences and outcomes of youth as they age out of the Texas Foster Care System. To pilot the study, the TYPS research team interviewed 30 youth formerly in Texas foster care on their experiences in 2018. As Communications Coordinator and then Communications Director for the institute, I created the study’s logo, and designed the pilot study report, visualized the study data, and designed the new framework featured in the report. We also created 7 “TYPS” Sheets for several different audiences that provided recommendations for working with and caring for youth in foster care.
From 2018-2022 this project team was collecting interviews and surveys from youth all over Texas. In that time my team designed and launched a website and quarterly newsletter featuring findings from the study. We also assisted in data collection by producing a engaging consent video for study participants and creating survey reminder GIFs that could be texted to participants. In 2021 we also assisted in the project’s second report.
An inherent theme in the design of TYPS is “amplifying” the voice of the youth participants. No other study has sought to track and fully explore the experiences of youth in the Texas foster care system. We use design elements like the yellow brackets you see around the TYPS logo to further illustrate how we want to highlight youth experiences in hopes of positive change towards creating a system that allows youth to thrive. Please see below some examples of this project’s products.
