FAPAC was created in October 2000 by a collaborative effort between The Consortium for Child Welfare, DC Metropolitan Foster and Adoptive Parents Association, and the Freddie Mac Foundation, and was based on the concept that DC's foster, kinship and adoptive parents were the missing elements at child welfare tables. Our staff and board fervently believe that children from the child welfare system will be best served by the inclusion of the people who love and care for them daily into the decision making about their lives.
FAPAC has the task of uniting the collective foster, kinship and adoptive parent voices to identify an advocacy agenda and then to move the city towards providing those services. We act within the dual role of partner and advocate with Child and Family Services Agency and the professional child welfare community. We are not a membership organization; however we work closely with the other membership organizations serving foster, kinship and adoptive parents of DC's children. In addition, we outreach to both public and private agency foster, kinship and adoptive parents, and our newsletter and materials are the only regular communication that reaches both public and private agency families.
As we defined system needs, we found crucial needs everywhere we turned. We have evolved into being the only organization in DC whose singular purpose is to advocate for specific system change within the DC Child Welfare system, without the barriers of institutions or contracts we need to preserve. Because individual and system advocacy are our only focus, we can be clear and very persistent. We often see ourselves in this quote: "If you thinking you are too small to be effective you have never been in bed with a mosquito." (Bette Reese)
Out guiding principles from which we formulate our policy actions are:
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The mission of The Foster & Adoptive Parent Advocacy Center is to improve the quality of life of children in the DC child welfare system by empowering their foster, kinship, and adoptive parents to advocate for their children's needs and by assuring the inclusion of these perspectives at every relevant table.