Digital Stories: Congressional Foster Youth Caucus

Mandy Urwiler, Congressman Jim McDermott, and Dawn Evans

The Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth comes to Washingtion State

By Mandy Urwiler

On May 28th and 29th, I attended the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth Listening Tour here in Seattle along with other youth and staff from Mockingbird. Day one welcomed everyone from Washington, DC. Congressmembers Karen Bass (CA-37), Jim McDermott (WA-07), and Dave Reichert (WA-08) attended. Congresswoman Bass and Congressman McDermott are co-chairs for the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth.

The two days were full of people talking about what is happening in the Washington foster care system, as well as the reforms that are still needed. The first day was mostly an overview of things happening now. I got to share some of my experiences with Mockingbird and system reform. I spoke about my experience with presenting reforming how pregnant teens in care are supported at the 2011 Leadership Summit and its progress to the Children's Administration workgroup that is still going on today.

Day two began with talks about educational resources for foster youth. After that, Treehouse and Mockingbird both had opportunities to introduce their organizations to the members of Congress and staff present. For the Mockingbird panel, Jim gave an overview of what we do, Degale Cooper, introduced the Mockingbird Family Model (MFM) and her experience as an MFM Hub home foster parent, and I talked about the Mockingbird Youth Network, and how I started as a chapter member in Olympia and quickly moved up to Senior Network Representative here at Headquarters.

For the afternoon of day 2, there were two panels, Moderated by Dr. Eric Trupin of the University of Washington. The first was about evidence-based practices in child welfare, and the second about the inappropriate medication of foster youth. Two of Mockingbird's youth spoke on the over medication panel, Valerie Skelton, and Dawna Evans, both members of our Everett Chapter.

The youth voice involved in the two days really made the biggest difference to those listening. I believe youth voice is some of the most important information decision makers can hear because we are the people who have gone through the system. We know what goes on beyond the statistics. We bring a face to those numbers and a story to the statistics. Our stories are a lot harder to ignore than numbers on a piece of paper. I want to thank the members of Congress and staff members who made the trip to attend this amazing event, and I hope that the stories and information shared during these two days help bring the experiences of youth to the national stage, leading to positive reforms at the federal level.