Foster Youth Shadow Day

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McNERNEY. Madam Speaker, more than 415,000 children are currently living in the foster care system in the United States. As a member of the Congressional Foster Youth Caucus, I'm dedicated to strengthening our nation's child welfare system for the children of today and for future generations.

I participate in the annual Congressional Foster Youth Shadow Day, where current and former foster youth from across the country come to Washington to meet with Members of Congress.

Today I had the privilege of hosting Erica Hickey, a bright young woman from my home state of California who has been a foster youth advocate with California Youth Connection (CYC) since she went into the foster care system at the age of sixteen. Today, Erica serves as a member of CYC's Board of Directors and attends UC Davis, where she is studying political science. She aspires to go to law school after graduation to study anti-trust and government fraud law.

Erica is passionate about advocacy and policies that support youth mental health, foster youth, homeless youth, and juvenile justice youth. It's been a pleasure to host her in our nation's capital today, and I wish her the best in her future endeavors.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source