To make a positive impact on the foster care community, we need action on both a personal and systemic level. We need community members who are willing to step up and support individuals directly, but we also need leaders capable of creating policies that address real challenges.
My guest for this episode, Lynn Johnson, is someone who has stepped into both of these roles. Lynn served as Assistant Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families in the US Department of Health and Human Services, which is a Senate-confirmed appointment where she led over 60 programs designed to make a real impact on lives all across the country. It was in this position that she created the ALL IN Foster Care and Adoption Challenge as a national call for people at all levels of government, as well as community members, to commit to being ALL IN for America’s children.
Today, she continues this work as the President of ALL IN Empowering Futures, a non-profit agency combating the crises of children aging out of the foster care system, adoption, poverty, and human trafficking.
In this episode, Lynn shares the lessons she’s learned from serving the foster care community on both a broad and personal scale, what she feels is the true measure of a successful program, how we can best serve adults who were formerly in foster care, and much more.
TAKEAWAYS FROM TODAY’S CONVERSATION:
1. There’s great power in making your outreach personal.
Lynn says that while bureaucracy can work, we need to look people in the eyes. Too often, individuals in the foster care system can feel like they’ve been reduced to numbers—whether it’s in school, food assistance, welfare, or foster cases, they’re constantly assigned one after another. But they are far more than numbers. They have names, stories, and lives. Real connection happens when we take the time to truly know them beyond the surface.
“I am not a number. I have a name, I have eyes. Don’t just look at me as ‘case number whatever’.”
2. Children in foster care can often miss out on key skills.
Many young adults aging out of foster care never had the opportunity to learn the core life skills that many of us take for granted. Consider when you got your first job. Who explained to you how the hiring process would go? What about how to handle your first paycheck, how to save money, and even the necessary skills to keep that job? So many of these lessons are learned within the support of family—but not everyone has that foundation. When these skills are missing, it becomes more difficult to navigate life as an adult.
“Crisis happens for all of us, but it happens a little bit more often for young people who have not had the preparation to be adults.”
3. Everyone needs a place to call home.
At the heart of ALL IN Empowering Futures is the desire to provide a place for people to come home to. As Lynn’s work demonstrates, we all have a community responsibility to help not only the children who are currently in foster care, but also the young adults who have aged out of foster care. When we each do our small part, we can create a powerful community that will give these individuals the support they need to break out of unhealthy cycles.
“These aren’t things that are too hard because there is enough people doing all the little things together.”
Meet Our Guest
Lynn Johnson is the President of ALL IN Empowering Futures, a non-profit agency combating the crises of children aging out of the foster care system, adoption, poverty, and human trafficking. She has held many positions in human services and previously served as the Assistant Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families in the US Department of Health and Human Services. It was in this position that she created the ALL IN Foster Care and Adoption Challenge. Lynn has been married for 39 years and she now has three adult children and one granddaughter. She and her husband also hold more than 50 alumni of the foster care system, now adults, close to their hearts.
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