This spring, First Place for Youth CEO Thomas Lee is serving as a Mimi and Peter E. Haas Distinguished Visitor at Stanford University’s Haas Center for Public Service. The Distinguished Visitor Program brings experienced practitioners in public service to campus to share their perspectives and engage with the Stanford community. For First Place, this opportunity is closely connected to our mission and the evidence base behind our work with foster youth. 

For more than 28 years, First Place has focused on helping transition-age foster youth build the skills, stability, and support they need for adulthood. Through My First Place™, young people in extended foster care receive stable housing and comprehensive support to pursue education and employment. A rigorous study by Chapin Hall found that youth who participated in My First Place were 1.7 times more likely to be employed in the year they exited extended foster care and 1.5 times more likely to be employed three years later, compared to similar youth who did not participate. Participants earned, on average, 65% more at exit and 37% more three years later, were 32% more likely to enroll in college, and 39% more likely to complete at least one term. 

For Thomas, the Stanford residency grows directly out of that evidence. “If our data tell us anything, it’s that stability and intensive support change lives,” he says. “The next question is: how do we help more leaders—future policymakers, funders, and nonprofit staff—understand what it actually takes to create that stability for young people?” Serving as a Distinguished Visitor gives him another venue to share what First Place is learning about extended foster care, housing, education, and employment outcomes with people who are committed to public service. 

The Distinguished Visitor Program is one of several ways the Haas Center engages community partners in public service education and practice, alongside initiatives like Social Entrepreneurs in Residence at Stanford and partnerships across campus. First Place’s involvement builds on a long-standing emphasis on research and data, including collaborations that aim to prevent homelessness among former foster youth and strengthen outcomes in housing, education, and employment. “My job in spaces like this isn’t to be the expert on everything,” Thomas notes. “It’s to be honest about what we’re learning on the ground—and to represent the experiences and strengths of the young people we serve.” 

By participating in the Distinguished Visitor Program, First Place is extending its mission beyond direct service into the broader ecosystem of public service education. The same values that guide our work with youth—respect, accountability, and a commitment to evidence-based practice—also guide how we show up as a community partner. In sharing what we know, and continuing to learn from others, we aim to help shape systems that offer foster youth not just a safety net, but a fair chance at thriving adulthood. 

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