Karen Bass: “May was National Foster Care Month, a time for our country to come together to acknowledge the half million people in…”

“May was National Foster Care Month, a time for our country to come together to acknowledge the half million people in our child welfare system, the hundreds of thousands who work within the system day in and day out, and the millions of adults who have exited the system and are no longer in care. No one knows the child welfare system like the foster youth who have grown up in the system. Today, the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth and the National Foster Youth Institute have brought more than 100 young people from every corner of the country here to Washington, D.C., to shadow their Member of Congress. I would like to take a second to thank the nearly 100 Members of Congress who are spending this morning learning from a constituent and delegate of this program about their personal experiences and ideas to make impactful change in the child welfare system. The delegates of this program have been in town since Saturday and have been learning about community activism and successful movement building. Yesterday, we held a forum right here in the Capitol where our delegates were able to ask Members of the leadership of Congress questions about changes to the child welfare system. I can't wait for the participants of this program to be up here serving in Congress, making their voices even louder than they are now. Each year, our participants have a real hand in making change.…”