ABC News: New Washington, DC, bill would allow foster youths to select their own legal families

This national news piece features advocates, including Children’s Law Center’s Policy Attorney Tami Weerasingha-Cote, discussing SOUL — a youth-driven, new permanency goal for older youth in foster care in DC. Children’s Law Center worked with more than 20 youth and young adults who are or have been in DC’s foster care system, along with DC agencies and other government leaders, to develop for this legislation and get it passed by the DC Council. Five of those individuals with lived experience are highlighted in this segment.

“This would be the first permanency plan embracing that social norms and a family dynamic look different for each and every person,” Cierra, 28, a foster youth advocate and former foster child who worked on the bill, said to Washington, D.C., councilmembers during a council hearing she attended to advocate for the bill. Kay Kay, along with over 20 other youths who lived through D.C.’s foster care system, were enlisted by the Children’s Law Center and Family & Youth Initiative to craft the legislation.