FosterPower celebrates one year of helping Florida’s foster youth!

It’s hard to believe it’s been one year since FosterPower’s launch!

Created by Tampa Bay area nonprofit law firm Bay Area Legal Services, FosterPower is an award-winning free app and website giving Florida’s foster youth access to easy, digestible information about their benefits, protections, and legal rights (i.e., independent living benefits, medical health, education, the court process, placement, protections for LGBTQ+ youth, monetary allowance, and more). It also includes 40 short-form TikTok-style videos sharing the experiences of former youth in foster care. In addition, FosterPower provides in-person and virtual training for youth in foster care and adults (child welfare professionals, judges, attorneys, foster parents, etc.) on children’s legal rights while they remain in care. (Over 400 trained!)

Since launching in May 2023, FosterPower has over 4,000 app downloads, 10,000 website users, and 100,000 video views and has received several news and media stories, including NPR’s All Things Considered, theSkimm, The Annie E. Casey Foundation blog, Tampa Bay Business Journal, and several news channels throughout Florida.

In 2024 and the coming years, FosterPower plans to add an immigration section and a human trafficking section with companion training, expand in Florida, and replicate in other states across the US. This initiative is the first of its kind nationwide and has also been recognized and praised by members of Congress as an important initiative. There are over 20,000 children in Florida’s overburdened child welfare system, and many of them do not know their benefits, protections, and legal rights—until now!

Review FosterPower’s full impact report here: https://fosterpower.org/impact/