E-Invite: October 5, 2010

Webinar: Two years since Fostering Connections: A look at older youth provisions

The Fostering Connections Resource Center, The Finance Project, and FosterClub invite you to a webinar marking the two-year anniversary of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (FCA). The webinar will focus on older youth provisions enacted in FCA, including a new option that allows states to seek federal reimbursement for extending assistance to children in foster care beyond age 18. This option, under active consideration by a number of states, went into effect October 1, 2010. Invited panelists include Rep. Les Gara, Alaska, and Gail Gronert, Special Assistant to the Speaker for the California General Assembly, who will share their experience in successfully passing legislation, and Amy Lemley, of the John Burton Foundation, will describe their coalition building efforts in California. The panel will feature an overview of other state efforts provided by Nina Mbengue, NCSL, and Barbara Langford, The Finance Project. In the second part of the webinar, Celeste Bodner, Ashley Jackson and Marcus Brown, of FosterClub, will describe a new transition planning tool developed by young leaders from foster care to facilitate youth-led transition planning. Barbara Langford, The Finance Project, will describe their tool for engaging states and community stakeholders in transition planning. The webinar will conclude with Daniel Heimpel of Fostering Media Connections sharing some of his work on raising public awareness to encourage implementation of FCA.

The Fostering Connections Resource Center provides information, training, and tools related to furthering the implementation of the Fostering Connections Act. Resources for each of the Act's key provisions are available online.