As Foster Sucess celebrates a decade of helping teens and young adults transition out of the foster care system, Indy Politics speaks with the group’s President, Maggie Stevens.
Over the past decade, the group has done the following…
The organization expanded from serving teens and young adults in Central Indiana during its early years to a statewide organization that now serves more than 730 young people every year.
- It successfully championed the extension of foster care services to age 23.
- It advocated requiring the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) and Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) to share data on the educational progress of students in the state’s foster care system and issue an annual education outcomes report. Before this reporting requirement was put into place, the high school graduation rates of Indiana students in foster care weren’t even tracked.
- It responded to the COVID-19 crisis by creating an Emergency Fund for those with lived experience in foster care to get immediate financial assistance with basic needs. This led to a new, permanent basic needs program.
You can hear Stevens in the Leon-Tailored Audio above.
The interview runs approximately 16 minutes.
