Speaking Out Today While Making Changes For Tomorrow

• Prudent Parenting Tools: Click to receive two tools: Guidelines to Reasonable and Prudent Parenting and Applying the Guidelines (Questions to ask)

​

• Creating Normalcy for Young People in Foster Care Webinar facilitated by a young adult, resource parents, and state policy analyst. Webinar developed by a collaboration of the Jordan Institute at UNC, Forsyth YIT, NCDHHS, Independent Living Resources, and SaySo

​

• How to have a Town Hall meeting - download to set up a local conversation. View the webinar and discuss the Guildelines together.

​

SaySo Alumni were invited to witness Governor McCrory sign SB 423 into law on Thursday, July 2 at the Governor's Mansion. Chaney Stokes, Marcella Middleton, and Roman Rys were joined by SaySo's Chief Administrator, Nancy Carter, Senator Tamara Barringer, and Karen McLeod (Benchmarks NC) in this historic moment. For years, the permission barriers were staggering preventing youths in foster care from participating in normal youth activities such as school sports, field trips, extra-curricula activities, community events, overnights, trips out of state, and learning to drive. This new law - nicknamed the "normalcy act" by many advocates will help eliminate those barriers by granting foster parents the power to give permission for youths to participate in normal childhood experiences.

​

SaySo is honored to have been a part of this process and also to be part of developing "normalcy practices" that will be used as a guide to help foster parents discern when DSS permission is and should be expected. We were so pleased to be joined by other foster youths in NC. Together we are making a difference for thousands of young people!! Take a bow SaySo!

BILL ALLOWS YOUTHS TO PARTICIPATE IN NORMAL SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES BY FOSTER FAMILY CONSENT.

​

This bill does many things for children in foster care and parents choosing to foster. It would create liability insurance for foster parents and allow parents to make more decisions on behalf of the children in their care such as attending sleepovers or going on overnight trips, remove barriers to children getting drivers licenses while in foster care and provide them with insurance, and to study a Medicaid waiver for children with serious emotional disturbance. With changes voted on by the House, the bill passed the Senate and was sent to the Governor. This is terrific news for NC, foster families, and especially for young people in foster care.

Read more...article in Winston Salem Journal