Twelve current and former foster youth are participating in CCAI’s Foster Youth Internship program, spending their summer interning for Members of Congress on Capitol Hill. On Tuesday, July 28 at a Congressional Briefing, they will use their legislative knowledge combined with their personal experience to educate federal policymakers on opportunities for reform in the U.S. foster care system. Each intern has researched and will provide a preview of two of the interns’ report topics.

Lindsey Harrington, Age 21

Internship assignment: Representative Paul Ryan  (R-WI) Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee

Report focus: Increasing adoptions of African-American males in foster care

Why it’s important to Lindsey: “Without permanency, African-American males are the ones who are most likely to bounce around the child welfare system and age out without a family to call their own.”

Destiny Reid, Age 20

Internship assignment: Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)

Report focus: Disrupted and dissolution adoptions

Why it’s important to Destiny: “I am a product of a failed adoption. People only see the good sides of adoption and an adoption failing is hardly ever talked about in communities or in the media. A recommendation that  I am working on is how the government should start tracking disrupted and dissolution adoptions.”

Be sure to attend the Congressional Briefing on Tuesday, July 28 to learn about Lindsey’s and Destiny’s policy recommendations on increasing adoptions of African-American males in foster care and how to address and try to prevent failed adoptions. If you are unable to make it, you can download a copy of the report at www.ccainsitute.org once it is released on the 28th!