Policy in Los Angeles
Alliance for Children's Rights
Mission: The Alliance for Children's Rights provides free legal services and advocacy to protect the rights of impoverished and abused children and youth so that they have safe, stable homes, health care and the education they need to thrive.
Since our founding in 1992, we've served nearly 100,000 children and youth in L.A. County. For many of our clients, The Alliance is the only connection to a safer, brighter future. www.kids-alliance.org
3333 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 550
Los Angeles, CA 90010-4111
Phone: (213) 368-6010
Office Hours: 9am-5:30pm, Monday-Friday
Children’s Action Network
Children’s Action Network (CAN) uses the power of the entertainment community to increase awareness about children’s issues and to make them a top priority in everyday life.
CAN is currently dedicated to finding homes for the more than 114,000 children in the United States who are waiting for an adoptive family and improving outcomes for the more than 500,000 children in foster care.
Children's Action Network
10951 West Pico Boulevard, Suite 330
Los Angeles, CA 90064
P 310.470.9599 F 310.474.9665 Toll Free 800.525.6789
Policy in America
Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI)
The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) is a non-profit organization that works to raise awareness about the needs of children without families and to remove policy barriers that hinder children from knowing the love and support a family provides.
CCAI is unique in that each of our programs brings together policymakers and individuals with direct foster care or adoption experience. We have found that when policymakers hear direct experiences of those affected by orphan and child welfare policy, they become engaged in this issue and work to bring about legislative improvements in an effort to ensure each child has their right to a family realized.
www.ccainstitute.org
Foster Care Alumni
The mission of Foster Care Alumni of America is to connect the alumni community and to transform policy and practice, ensuring opportunity for people in and from foster care.
www.fostercarealumni.org
CWLA
Our focus is children and youth who may have experienced abuse, neglect, family disruption, or a range of other factors that jeopardize their safety, permanence, or well-being. CWLA also focuses on the families, caregivers, and the communities that care for and support these children.
www.cwla.org
Casey Family Program
Provides expertise and support to state, local and tribal child welfare agencies, assisting those efforts that better the lives of children in foster care. Provides high-quality foster care, kinship care and transition services for children and families while developing innovative practices that can be inherited by public agencies
www.Casey.org
National Foster Care Coalition (NFCC)
The National Foster Care Coalition (NFCC) is a broadly based national, nonpartisan partnership of individuals, organizations, foundations, and associations dedicated to improving the lives of the more than half a million children currently in the foster care system and the millions more who have been, or will be, involved in the foster care system. The power of NFCC's constituency is unmatched. Its member organizations represent current and former foster youth, birth, foster and adoptive parents, and child welfare professionals at the local, state and federal levels. As a result, NFCC's ability to represent the individuals touched by foster care, working within the foster care system, and who care about children in foster care is unparalleled.
www.NationalFosterCare.org
Public Counsel
Public Counsel Speaks Out as LA County Takes a Critical Step to Protect Youth Leaving Foster Care System
Public Cousel spoke out as the theLA County Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted an ambitious plan on March 29 to protect youth as they age out of the child welfare system. The county's Youth Self-Sufficiency Plan represents an integrated approach, involving all county departments, to address the housing, education, career and emotional needs of the 40,000 children and youth in the foster care.
For thousands of former foster youth who are exiting to homelessness or into our criminal justice system, this could not come soon enough," said Laura Faer, Directing Attorney of Public Counsel's Children's Rights Project.
Public Counsel had earlier advocated in support County Mayor Mike Antonovich’s motion to adopt youth self-sufficiency as a countywide goal. Today’s motion represents nearly a year of work and dedication from 18 county departmental leaders and community partners, including Public Counsel, which has been an active member of the Self-Sufficiency workgroup since its inception.
“Members of the Self-Sufficiency workgroup came together week after week to envision a new, integrated way to serve foster year,” Faer said.
County Puts Focus on Self-Sufficiency for Youth
Public Counsel helps thousands of foster youth, and hundreds of transition-age foster youth every year. Faer spoke about one of our clients, “Norma.”
"When she was referred to us, Norma was living in her car. Her Medi-cal insurance had been cut off. She needed mental health care and was very sick," said Faer. "She had been spent the little money she had on community college because no one told her that as a former foster youth she was entitled to attend for free. She did not have a Transition Independent Living Plan and did not know that there were resources in this county for former foster youth like her."
If timely and fully implemented, the county's action in adopting the Youth Self-Sufficiency Plan should help ensure youth, like Norma, have access to critical services including:
• Dedicated and trained Transition Skills Advocates
• Assistance with medical care
• Access to county services and assistance with employment
• Increased availability of transitional and permanent Housing
The Youth Self-Sufficiency Plan also puts a critical focus on self-sufficiency at every development stage for children in foster case. It includes an emphasis on early childhood development, screening and intervention and school-readiness for every foster child. Public Counsel will continue to work with its county partners to ensure timely and full implementation. |
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