Meet Natalie!

Hi my name is Natalie Clark and I spent 6 years in and out of Utah’s foster care system between the ages of 3 and 17 years old. Being a dual system involved teen with both DCFS and JJS I had too many placements to keep track of during my teenage years and experienced placements in Foster Care, Proctor Care, Group Home/ Congregate Care, Residential Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Program and Juvenile Detention. 

I graduated in 2021 with a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Utah and took a small break in between beginning my Master’s degree in Social Work to work full-time as the first Lived Experience Transition to Adult Living Assistant Coordinator through Utah’s Department of Child and Family Services working with young people in the Transition to Adult Living (TAL) Program. I have worked in many roles over the last 10 years within Salt Lake County Division of Youth Services, State Child Welfare providers, Foster/proctor care agencies and nonprofit organizations serving current and former foster youth. I served as a 2020 All-star intern and continued on as a Lived Experience Leader with the National Foster Care Alumni Network FosterClub (a national organization dedicated to training, educating, and connecting foster youth to various advocacy and policy reform groups and resources), DCFS foster care liaison for Youth Services Youth Advisory Board, and now a Co-Founder of 1999 Collective. I have had the profound honor to participate on multiple local and national advocacy and advisory councils for many years with the goal of educating, informing and improving state foster care systems. I am elated to continue to empower the voices and expertise of young people with lived expertise.

Growing up in and out of various systems beginning at the age of three years old and throughout adulthood, I remember wishing I had someone to connect with that truly understood what I was going through and how to help. That is why founding the 1999 Collective means so much to me. I hope to one day be the collective that young people in Utah's foster care can always securely count on for the community, resource connection, and support necessary to not only survive but thrive because no one should have to do it all alone.

”You is kind. You is smart. You is important.” - Aibileen Clark