About FosterPower

About FosterPower

FosterPower was created because there was no way to find information on the benefits, protections, and legal rights for kids in foster care. When kids in foster care move, they often are given little notice and many of their belongings get lost. The one thing kids usually always keep on them is a phone. Federal law says children must be given information on their rights in foster care. With FosterPower, this information is right at their fingertips.

Mission

To improve the lives and futures for youth in foster care by creating access to information on their benefits, protections, and legal rights.

Vision

Our vision is for every child in foster care to have access to information on their benefits, protections, and legal rights, and as a result feel empowered, safe, and have better lives and futures.

History & Background

FosterPower, formerly known as “Know Your Rights- an informational guide for teenagers in foster care” started out as a project by attorney Taylor Sartor during her last year of law school. Taylor was planning to become an attorney for kids in foster care and was serving as a Guardian ad litem volunteer for 2 teenagers. She was frustrated when trying to look up information on allowance, who was supposed to take kids to the doctor (was it the case manager or the group home? They both said it was the other’s job,) if they would qualify for extended foster care, the questions were endless –and finding the answers weren’t easy. That is when she decided she would create a guide that explains the rights of kids in foster care. She found a team of law students who agreed to help  and together they spent over 300 hours compiling laws and organizing the content. Through several grants and some luck, they were able to get some copies printed. They soon realized, however, that kids would lose these paper copies. Taylor continued to hand out booklets and provide training for the content as an attorney for kids in foster care for several years. Eventually, a new funding opportunity came along. By this point, dozens more attorneys from the Greenberg Traurig LLP law firm and Stetson students continued to help Taylor update the content and add more sections. Additionally, user research and testing was conducted with the help of current and former foster youth themselves to make sure the content is what they want to learn and in a format they can understand and want to read. Suddenly, the dream of giving kids instant access to vital information on their benefits, protections, and rights became a reality.

Meet the team

Taylor Sartor
Creator, Co-founder & Program Lead

Taylor Sartor (formerly Taylor Greenberg) created FosterPower back in 2017 while still a law student. She received her Juris Doctor from Stetson University College of Law in 2018 with a concentration in Social Justice Advocacy. Taylor went on to become an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the L. David Shear Children’s Law Center of Bay Area Legal Services where she represented kids in foster care primarily living in group homes and trained youth and the child welfare community on youth rights. Taylor is currently a staff attorney at the Children’s Law Center and specializes in the representation of teenagers in group homes and psychiatric facilities, those with crossover dependency/delinquency issues, teen parents, victims of human trafficking, youth with disabilities in need of education advocacy, and more.  

Scrappy
Mascot

Scrappy is the mascot of FosterPower and in real life Taylor’s dog. He is a friendly pitbull who brings joy to everyone he meets with his big smile and goofy personality. Scrappy has long been a friend to Taylor’s clients and can be seen on set filming with the former foster youth who participated in the FosterPower Youth Video Series. Being in foster care is tough, and it is hard to feel like you can trust anyone. That’s why Scrappy appears throughout FosterPower to give tips and to be a friendly face youth can trust.

Rastko Durica
Co-founder & Product Lead

David Gray
Co-founder & Advisor

Heather Tager
Co-founder & Advisor

About Bay Area Legal Services

Bay Area Legal Services is a regional, nonprofit public interest law firm providing the highest quality legal counsel by:

1. Assisting indiviudals and nonprofit groups with limited access to legal services
2. Resolving the legal problems of our clients
3. Preserving the independence, hope, and dignity of those we serve

About the Children’s Law Center

The L. David Shear Children’s Law Center of Bay Area Legal Services provides high-quality, holistic, client-directed legal representation to children who have been abused, neglected, and/or abandoned in the overburdened child welfare system.

Contributors & special thanks

Thank you to the amazing youth and young adults who have made FosterPower possible, specifically youth from the Children’s Home Network group home in Tampa, Florida, and the members of Florida Youth Shine. 

We would also like to thank the many law students at Stetson University College of Law and the attorneys at Greenberg Traurig LLP for their hundreds of hours of pro bono research that made this project possible.