Jayne Amelia speaks with attorney, child advocate, and bestselling author Andrew Bridge. Andrew spent 11 years in Los Angeles County foster care, before earning a scholarship to Wesleyan University and graduating from Harvard Law School. He is a Fulbright Fellow and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Writing Resident.

His work has garnered coverage in The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Showtime, The Observer, The CBS Early Show, NBC Nightly News, Time Magazine, PBS, Psychology Today, NPR, and Observer Magazine.

He began his legal career representing children against the State of Alabama. His work resulted in the closure of one of the most notorious psychiatric institutions in the country, the Eufaula Adolescent Center. After that, he returned home to Los Angeles as CEO of The Alliance for Children’s Rights. He defended children at MacLaren Hall, where he was once confined. Under Andrew’s leadership, The Alliance successfully sued Los Angeles County over its practice of not visiting foster children. The victory gave every foster child the right to see and speak with their social worker at least once a month.

Andrew chaired Los Angeles County’s Blue Ribbon Foster Care Task Force, which called for an end to the disproportionate removal of African-American babies from their parents. He is the co-founder of National Adoption Day. He went on to lead California’s largest recruiter of LGBT+ foster and adoptive parents.

A sought-after expert in his field, he has advised senior federal and state officials on reforming our foster care system to meet the needs of families living in poverty. His educational work resulted in the establishment of New Village Girls Academy, California’s first all-girls high school for pregnant and parenting teens. He regularly consults with child welfare systems, children’s facilities, and private foundations. As a member of Arizona’s Foster Care Review Board, Andrew advises Arizona’s Juvenile Court on the safety and well-being of individual children in the state’s care.

His website is here and his best-selling books:

Hope's Boy

The Child Catcher

n this episode we talk about:

*Growing up in Los Angeles foster care and his early experiences that shaped his perspectives
*His journey to becoming an attorney and child advocate, including earning degrees and professional milestones
*Discussion of his new book The Child Catcher, which offers a critique of the child welfare system and calls for transformative reforms
*Reflections on how storytelling and personal narrative can ignite change in foster care policies and practices

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