Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute

Interns with the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute presented their policy recommendations to members of Congress and their staff.

Angelique Salizan participated in the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute's Foster Youth Internship Program in 2015. Now, she's returning as a policy director.

The coronavirus pandemic has added urgency to the work of this year’s class of congressional interns with expertise in foster care – the history of their own lives. The fallout of COVID-19 has hit more than 400,000 children and youth in foster care like few other groups of Americans as yet another trauma in their lives, and none more so than young people approaching independence.

Sixteen months after the heart-breaking death of its long-time executive director, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute has hired its next permanent leader, who inherits the challenge of steadying an organization amidst a pandemic.

The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) has begun the search for a new executive director according to an announcement last week. The nonprofit institute has been under the leadership of interim executive director Bethany Haley since the organization’s long-time executive director Becky Weichhand died of cancer in late 2018.

At The Imprint, amplifying the voices of young people with lived experience in the foster care or youth justice systems is critical to our mission. As it turns out, our readers like to hear from them just as much as we do.

Youth who have spent time in the foster care system have the opportunity to participate in an internship on Capitol Hill. The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) is now accepting applications for its 2020 Foster Youth Internship Program (FYI).

The Imprint is highlighting each of the policy recommendations made this summer by the participants of the Foster Youth Internship Program (FYI), a group of 12 former foster youths who have completed congressional internships.