Dear friends, My journey at Foster America began, as transformative journeys often do, with a connection. A birthday party a decade ago reunited me with Sherry Lachman, a colleague and friend from earlier in our careers, when we were both getting our professional start in the child welfare field. In...
Fourteen new leaders are joining Foster America’s Fiscal Leadership Circle (FLC) as momentum builds to offer prevention resources earlier. Across child- and family-serving systems, we know what works. We know that stabilizing housing, providing cash support, and investing in upstream services are key conditions that keep children safe and families...
As 2025 comes to a close, Foster America is marking the graduation of the 2024–2025 National Leadership Circle (NLC)—a yearlong fellowship designed to strengthen the leadership of people with lived experience in child welfare and position their expertise at the center of systems change. This milestone reflects a core belief...
Building a Prevention-First Future in Child Welfare Foster America is proud to launch the second cohort of the Fiscal Leadership Circle (FLC). This 12-month fellowship equips finance professionals with the tools and strategies to reshape how resources reach families. At a moment when bold, forward-thinking approaches are urgently needed, the...
On September 30, 2025, Foster America hosted the second annual Fostering Futures Forum at the MIT Media Lab. Celebrating imagination, collaboration, and the power of lived experience, the Forum spotlighted the Technology Leadership Circle (TLC) — a 10-month fellowship uniting changemakers with lived experience in foster care and MIT collaborators...
In Wisconsin, one in 10 children entering foster care was separated from their family because of housing instability. In 2023, Dustin Koury joined Foster America’s Fiscal Leadership Circle (FLC) determined to change that statistic. The FLC is a 12-month fellowship that equips finance professionals with strategies to increase support for...
Led by members of our National Leadership Circle, this year’s “Fall into Learning” series, Oct. 15-Nov. 13, 2025, tackles key issues facing youth in our nation’s child welfare system. Our fellows explore a range of topics including housing instability, educational equity, trauma-informed care and more – as well as offer...
With the newly signed federal spending plan scaling back critical supports for families, communities face unprecedented challenges ensuring help reaches those who need it most. Foster America’s Fiscal Leadership Circle (FLC), a 12-month fellowship, provides finance professionals with the tools to reshape how resources reach families — at a time...
A pilot program launching in three Colorado counties seeks to reduce child welfare involvement by connecting families in need to community support – without engaging protective services. In 2022, Colorado received more than 114,000 calls to its child protection hotline. More than 71% were screened out, meaning they did not...
In 2026, Foster America marks a decade of building an alternative to a child welfare system rooted in crisis—and proving that families thrive when support comes early, with dignity, and led by community.
