“Foster Youth Mural Project” to be launched in Seattle!

This summer, a mural artist and four foster youth who grew up in institutions in Japan will travel to Seattle to create murals, and a group of foster youth from our local communities will join this extraordinary project.

The mural project’s theme is “(Re)Connecting Post-COVID-19: Foster Youth of Japan and the US, Collaborating for Healing, Resilience, and Advocacy”

• IFCA Foster Youth Team members from the US and Japan will be given opportunities to create two separate murals in Seattle.
• The first mural will be created on multiple wooden panels to be place together as a large-scale mural. This “Foster Youth and Resilience” mural will be exhibited in a permanent venue within the city that is currently being selected.  
• WASHIO TOMOYUKI , an experienced artist who has created several murals in Japan, will be designing this mural with a group of IFCA youth members. 
• WASHIO will be starting to draw this first mural on Saturday July 22nd (mural location to be announced). This mural creation event will be open to selected participants and observers.
• This “Foster Youth and Resilience Mural” project is part of a 3-year grant program supported by the Japan Foundation. The Seattle mural which will be the first in the series of two murals, and the second mural with the same theme to be created and exhibited in Nagoya, Japan in the winter of 2025.
• On Friday July 28th, 4 foster youth who grew up in institutions in Japan will arrive in Seattle.
• On Friday August 4th, WASHIO, the 4 Japanese foster youth and foster youth from local youth serving organizations will gather at Assembly Cafe in Ballard (5507 17th Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107) to create the second mural together on cafe’s outside wall space (139”X115”) to be displayed for 3 to 6 months. This mural creation event will be open to selected participants and observers.

Please contact IFCA executive director, Miho Awazu, for any questions miho.awazu@ifcaseattle.org

Who We Are

IFCA (International Foster Care Alliance), a nonprofit organization based in Seattle, has formed foster youth teams in the US and Japan. For the last 10 years, young members in these teams have traveled to each other’s country and collaborated on more than 50 events that drew over 5,000 people.

Why Foster Youth Tell Their Stories

In Japan, unlike the US and other economically advanced countries, 85 % of foster children still live in large-scale institutions until they age out of the system. Foster youth are not given adequate opportunities to voice their viewpoint, and “youth voice” is unrecognized in this country. However, some of the difficulties that Japanese foster youth are facing are extremely similar to the ones that American foster youth are struggling with. These young people had childhoods filled with fear, humiliation and isolation. Being able to share their past experiences with peers and to transcend their cultural and linguistic differences has given them a strong bond and feelings of confidence and empowerment.

The Mural Project Starts in Seattle シアトル in the Summer of 2023 and Ends in Nagoya 名古屋, Japan in the Winter of 2025

This mural project is part of a 3-year grant program supported by the Japan Foundation. Japanese artist, WASHIO TOMOYUKI, and IFCA’s foster youth members will be designing the murals together based on the youths’ “stories of struggle and resilience”. This first mural in Seattle will reconnect foster youth between Japan and the US after the long pandemic period. We believe that art is a universal language that connects communities and that these two murals in Seattle and Nagoya will demonstrate our young people’s unity and strength across the pacific ocean.