Virtue Visionary Case Study: #2
Youth-Led Systems Change Model in Hamilton County
Integrating Youth Lived Experience into Trauma-Informed Professional Training
Problem
Professionals working in child welfare, education, and youth-serving systems often receive training about trauma in foster care without hearing directly from young people who have experienced the system themselves.
This gap can make it difficult for professionals to fully understand how trauma, instability, and system interactions shape the behaviors and needs of youth in care.
Without lived experience perspectives, training can remain theoretical rather than helping professionals translate trauma-informed principles into real practice.
Youth Collaboration
To address this gap, youth leaders and alumni from a county youth advisory board partnered with Finding Hope Consulting to create a series of training films centered on lived experiences in foster care.
Across three separate productions:
• Seven youth and alumni participated, in addition to Jay Brown
• Youth shared personal experiences navigating trauma, system responses, and resilience
• Youth helped shape the messaging to ensure the content reflected authentic experiences within the foster care system
Each film was funded by institutional partners seeking to strengthen trauma-informed approaches within their workforce.
Partners included:
• Miami University
• OCALI (Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence)
• A family services grant initiative connected to the Strong Families Safe Communities / Resilience Project
System Change
The films were developed as training resources for professionals working with youth and families.
The project focused on helping professionals:
• understand trauma through the lens of lived experience
• recognize how system interactions impact youth behavior and trust
• apply trauma-informed responses when supporting young people
The films are now used by partner organizations as part of professional training and workforce development.
Outcome
Through this initiative:
• Youth voices were integrated directly into professional training environments
• Multiple institutions gained trauma-informed training resources grounded in lived experience
• The films are now used to help professionals better understand how trauma, resilience, and system interactions shape youth outcomes
Why This Matters
Trauma-informed care requires systems to recognize and respond to the impact of trauma in policies, procedures, and professional practices.
By embedding lived experience into professional training, this initiative helps move organizations beyond theory and toward practice that is responsive to the real experiences of youth in care.
Role of Youth Governance
Youth leaders:
• contributed lived experience insights
• shaped training narratives
• participated in filmed storytelling and discussion
• helped ensure the training reflected authentic experiences of youth in the foster care system
This collaboration demonstrates how youth leadership can help institutions strengthen trauma informed practice and workforce understanding.