We are thrilled to welcome you to the first-ever newsletter for the Texas Foster Youth Health Initiative (TFYHI). We've also just launched our new website, TFYHI.org! As you may know, TFYHI is committed to making youth in foster care feel connected, safe, and empowered to make informed decisions about their sexual health and relationships. The Initiative is working to build relationships across child welfare and adolescent health systems to promote optimal health for youth involved in the child welfare system.

In the Initiative's newsletter, we will provide updates and interactive content highlighting the Initiative’s progress toward making Texas a state dedicated to promoting optimal health for youth involved in care. In this initial launch, we'd like to share what we've done on the statewide level in our first 6 months, including our first 6-month progress report, and also introduce you to the whole TFYHI team in all of our site areas throughout Texas. If you are in one of our site areas, feel free to reach out to your local TFYHI team as we are currently looking for more stakeholders to get involved. Through the TFYHI website, we hope to eventually create a platform that serves as the central hub to engage and support professionals, caregivers, and youth involved in the Texas foster care system, so stay tuned to learn more about that in the upcoming months.

Thanks to our partners at the Texas Institute for Child & Family Wellbeing, the Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, the Texas Alliance for Child and Family Services, Healthy Future of Texas, and the North Texas Alliance to Reduce Unintended Pregnancy in Teens for helping us make this incredible project what it is. This is only the beginning of what we believe will positively transform the way we support and encourage youth in foster care to make the healthiest decisions for themselves in Texas.

Please reach out to us if you have any interest or questions about TFYHI! We'd love to hear from you.

Sincerely,
Barbara Ball, Ph.D., LPC-AT, TFYHI Co-Principal Investigator,
Monica Faulkner, Ph.D., LMSW, TFYHI Co-Principal Investigator &
Sharon Hoefer, MSSW, TFYHI Project Manager

Meet the TFYHI team at TXICFW here.