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TRAVEL FOR CHANGE

BY DANIEL HEIMPEL

Three years ago, I volunteered as a lacrosse coach at a rough South Los Angeles high school. Among the players was a 16-year-old boy named Chris, who had an anger in him that ran in stark opposition to his otherwise happy, confident demeanor.

Concerned, I asked him about his parents and he said that he lived in a group home. After visiting him there, I wrote a story about Chris' experience in foster care for LA Weekly. I have been a mentor to Chris ever since, and knowing him has opened my eyes to the failings of the foster care system. As a journalist, I have written scores of stories on the subject, but that wasn't enough. So I traveled to Washington, DC, to live my dream: meet with lawmakers and advocates to present my plan to make the system better for more than 500,000 children who live in care.

In the Capitol building, I met with Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) as other members of Congress and their corteges rushed past to a session on health care reform. McDermott, stately under a head of steely gray hair, listened carefully as I explained how I wanted to use local TV, print and web media to see the federal bill he submitted implemented on the state level. The law, the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, marks the most sweeping reform to foster care in the past 30 years. "The media can be proactive and certainly can promote advocacy," he said. He shared his advice, and I felt honored that a man who had done so much for kids was supportive in my effort to do the same.

My second meeting was with Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), who was joined by Betty Krupa and Jetaine Hart, both former foster youths who first met the senator through the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute's foster youth internship program. When asked how she felt about the general state of foster care reform, Landrieu said, "This is solvable. That is what is so maddening." I told her about my plan, and she promised to help.

In the months after meeting with Landrieu and McDermott, their aides helped me develop my plan and put me in contact with the people I would eventually partner with to make it a reality. I left DC invigorated, knowing that I was one step closer to making a difference in children's lives.

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