2017 All-Stars

In the start of her advocacy , she found the significance of utilizing her voice to implement political changes through the 2016 Congressional Foster Youth Shadow Day program. As a participant, she used her voice to explain and illustrate to legislators the challenges many youth experience in the child welfare... Read more

Years in care: 4 Crystal Yanez is from Los Angeles, California. Crystal's parents emigrated from Mexico to California for better opportunities. She overcame losing her parents due to gun violence, trauma and poverty. She went to care at 4 and was placed in kinship with her sister at 7 until... Read more

Years in care: 7 Growing up, Cynthia spent time in three different homes that she can remember. From ages 1-6, she wasraised in the care of her godmother. When she was about six and a half, she was sent to stay with one of her relatives for about six months... Read more

"Anonymous" is a 26 year old foster youth alumni and advocate. They started advocacy as a member of the peer-elected legislative action committee of Oregon Foster Youth Connection, which helped pass HB 2216 the Sibling Bill of Rights for Foster Youth in Oregon in 2017. "Anonymous" spent time with the... Read more

Eric Warner grew up in Arkansas and entered their foster care system when he was 8 years old. There were many placements (11 in total) that he was moved to including traditional foster home placements, congregate care facilities, and emergency shelters. Shortly after his 18th birthday, Eric ‘aged out’ of... Read more

Years in care: 18 Evelin is currently a student in high school, going into her senior year; in addition to a high school diploma, she will also have a semester of college under her belt. Evelin is the president of her high school's Gay Straight Alliance Club and has a... Read more

Years in care: 4 At the age of 14, Jessica was placed into foster care, going through several traditional foster homes and one kinship placement, she finally found her family at the age of 17. With the support of her family, she started out college at Minnesota West Community and... Read more

Years in care: 6 years When Jevin first entered foster care he was 11 years old and was a fresh face to Michigan. He was first put into a group home thinking to himself, "Where is my life headed?" Well after moving from two different foster homes, that idea became... Read more

Years in care: 4 Jordan was placed in care at the age of twelve. While in care, Jordan spent her time in nine different foster homes, over a time period of four and a half years. She was adopted at age sixteen. During her time in care she served on... Read more

Years in care: 15 Kaseem is a senior in college at Alfred State College where he is studying Business Administration. Currently, he is living in the state of New York where Kaseem plans on finishing his college career. Kaseem is very outgoing and loves to play sports including basketball, baseball,... Read more