CHILD WELFARE
Board Member||FosterClub
August 2018 - Current
Ensuring FosterClub as the number one go-to resource for every youth in and out of foster care by strengthening and guiding the one and five year strategic plan of the organization through monthly board meetings.
Identified two strategic partnerships, one with New York State’s Office of Children and Family Services Foster Care Awareness Month Media Campaign, the second with Alia Innovations UnSystem Cohort, resulting in an increase in 1,000’s of youth views on multiple social media platforms.
Identifying, attracting, and meeting with high potential donors to support FosterClub as an extraordinary resource for Foster Youth.
Enabling FosterClub to maximize their impact by providing thought leadership and strategic direction for the organization.
Ensuring FosterClub achieves it’s mission in that young people in and from foster care are connected, educated, represented, and inspired.
Supported and voted on the hiring of three leadership positions, including the organizations new Chief Financial Officer and two other leadership positions, scaling FosterClub as a nationally important institution.
Policy Lead, Panelist, & Blog Writer||FosterClub
June 2016 – Current
Authored blogs, newsletters, and Op-Ed pieces and delivered national campaign launch speeches, influencing the passing of two federal legislation's, The Health Care for Former Foster Youth Act/ SUPPORT Act and The Family First Prevention Act, improving the lives of 500,000+ foster youth in and out of foster care and 1,000’s of child welfare agencies, organizations, and professionals in America.
Developed strategic partnerships with Representative Karen Bass (CA), Senator Bob Casey, FosterClub CEO, Celeste Bodner, national child welfare and medicaid stakeholders, advocates, and policy makers.
Wrote blogs, newsletters and Op-Ed pieces for FosterClub’s “Fostering Healthy Outcomes” project, their nation wide media blitz #fixtheglitch and their online Story Bank, in collaboration with the Juvenile Law Center and SPARC and for their new online training for foster parents, stakeholders, and other child welfare professionals.
Advocated for the Family First Legislation Act and participated in phone conferences and video recordings with Senator Hatch (Utah), Senator Wyden (Oregon) and child welfare professionals; Assisted with calls and social media campaign.
All Star Intern||FosterClub
June 2016 - September 2016
Facilitated 30+ workshops on 16 various workshops at nationally held child welfare conferences, educating and training over 3,000 foster youth in their transition from foster care to independent living.
Reached over 170,000 Facebook users, produced 28 E-Newsletters reaching up to 65,994 people per email, and made thousands of connections.
Initiated child welfare events, encouraging cross systems collaboration and coordinated services between Universities, Organizations, Foster Parents, Foster Youth, and National Advocates.
Connected, educated, inspired and represented 3,000+ foster youth through town hall meetings with house of Representatives and senators, scaling the national peer support network for foster youth in America.
Received intensive leadership, public speaking, presentation, advocacy, and professional development training.
Participated in the Foster Youth Success Initiative Summer Institute and provided training to Pierce Colleges students and staff in a facilitated led workshop on Strategic Sharing and Youth-Adult Partnerships, to empower youth to share there story and to train staff to support foster youth.
Led two fundraising projects—a local fundraising campaign and a national auction fundraising event. generating thousands of donations.
Contributed in town hall meeting with Representative Suzanne Bonamici.
Modified and strengthened three workshops at FosterClub, resulting in better youth engagement and comprehension.
Accepted as 2017 Level II All Star Intern.
Cohort Guide||Alia Innovation
February 2019 - Current
Influencing the future of the child welfare system by operationalizing the UnSystem, a new child welfare system, with 30+ child welfare innovators across 5 jurisdictions and 14 counties.
Guiding change, grounding innovation, creating the process, and challenging agency leaders to do more and become bolder and more courageous through rapid prototyping, experimentation and rapid cycle innovation to maximize impact.
Ideating, designing, testing, failing, and retrying transformative, radical, ideas.
Scaling and delivering evidence based research and proof of concept to be highlighted by Jerry Milner, Commissioner for the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, in Congress as the national model for child welfare.
Establishing Alia as the answer to child welfare reform in America.
Developing methods to measure our impact through evaluation maps, consolidation, mining our evaluation maps, all-group report-outs, change frameworks, presentations, worksheets, and in-depth peer-to-peer, all-group consultations.
Identifying and evaluating how we can do more, bigger, faster?
Shifting judicial landscape with judges and attorneys to inform a trauma-responsive approach judicial processes.
Organizing events, webinars, and in person talks with legal and financial officials to develop strong partnerships.
Identifying and encouraging the highest potential agencies and counties to adopt the UnSystem model and join the Innovation cohort.
Developing a public awareness campaign strategy to reach thousands of child welfare professionals, youth, and politicians.
Informing five publications, two case studies on process, learning, and outcomes and three research briefs on the economic cost of child welfare.
Learning how to write effective Op Ed’s to maximize impact and reach.
Ten of Ten Innovator||Alia Innovation
May, 2017 - October, 2017
Ideated, prototyped, designed, and reimagined a new child welfare system, developing 30 prototypes, thousands of ideas, and hundreds of evaluations, over 3.5 days of design and subsequent months of national listening and design sessions, with design pioneers, IDEO, and 100+ leaders at all levels in child welfare, innovators from diverse industries, child development experts, achievement and innovation fellows, child welfare founders, and child welfare-affected individuals.
Built the UnSystem to preserve and strengthen family connections.
Foster Youth||New York State Office of Children and Family Services - Foster Care Awarness Month Social Media Campaign
January 2018 – September 2018
Participated in the New York State Office of Children and Family Services Foster Care Awareness Month Media Campaign to enrich parent recruitment efforts and to remove misconceptions about foster youth.
Participated in a video shoot that showcased stories of a positive adult figure in my life.
Developed a marketing strategy and partnership with Youth In Progress, FosterClub, and Alia Innovation.
Committed to improving foster care experiences for children across New York State.
Founder||Foster Youth College Tour Program - Hobart and William Smith Colleges
December 2016 – May 2017
Created, organized, and led four college tours and one on one mentoring sessions with 40 foster youth between the ages of 13-17 in New York State and in collaboration with Hobart and William Smith Colleges, the organization Youth In Progress, and sponsored by the Intercultural Affairs Department.
Coordinated facilitated workshops by eight departments on campus, educating youth on financial aid, scholarships, entrepreneurship, community service, leadership, and career opportunities.
Enabled youths understanding of college opportunities and the financial assistance provided in New York State, resulting in 95% of attendees feeling confident about attending college and choosing to want to apply.
Removing artificial limits that college and success as a foster youth in and out of foster care is a possibility.
Encouraging and educating foster youth on how to maximize their foster care experience.
Resulted in three publications and state recognition's, reaching thousands of youth across New York State and Nationally.
Developing a state and national Foster Youth College Tour Program model for colleges and universities to replicate and implement.
Establishing a standard and college pathway for foster youth to explore higher education at Universities across New York State.
Workshop Facilitator||Youth In Progress
September 2016 - February 2017
Assisted in planning and facilitating Youth In Progress events and workshops held throughout region three of New York State on topics such as, Youth-Adult Partnerships, Strategic Sharing, and Permanency.
Designed and Implemented a college scholarship and financial aid information workshop to eliminate the resource barrier between foster youth and financial assistance for higher education.
Provided one-on-one peer mentoring to Foster Youth.
Promote higher education and Higher Education Opportunity Program.
Winning Proposal||Hobart and William Smith Colleges - IdeaLab Six-Week Start-Up Accelerator Program
May 17, 2013
Awarded seed funding by the Centennial Center for Leadership to launch my business idea, Giving Change for Opportunity.
Secured $250 in funding to travel around New York City to interview youth on what it is like to be a biological, foster, or adopted child.
Participated in the six-week accelerator program designed to power student ideas for products, services, and organizations, as preparatory program to the Pitch Competition, to compete for $3,000 worth of seed funding
Developed a business proposal that included Proposal Description, Value and Social Responsibility, Viability Research, Competitors, Customer Segment, Cost Structure, Implementation Timeline, and Leadership Role.
Refined my business plan and ideas through collaborative workshops with faculty in multiple departments, staff, and alumnus with business expertise.
Learned a broad range of entrepreneurial concepts and collaboration techniques.
Accelerated the Centennial Center for Leadership's Entrepreneurship Leadership Program.