For 16 years, Morgan Perrill has advocated for changes at the state level. For the past two years, much of her work has been on behalf of youth in foster care.
“I love seeing young people learn about government and get involved in its process,” said Perrill, Vice President of The Corydon Group, an Indianapolis-based public affairs firm.
Morgan Perrill
Perrill has successfully lobbied for Foster Success’s policy initiatives, getting them into lawmakers’ hands to be drafted, presented, and ultimately signed into law. Those changes have and will grow programs that support teens and youth in foster care for years to come.
“We engage foster youth throughout the legislative process,” she said. “The young people Foster Success supports testified in public hearings, empowering them and allowing the lawmakers to hear their experiences firsthand.”
One notable victory was Senate Enrolled Act 246, which created the Insuring Foster Youth Fund to offset expenses related to driving for Indiana’s older foster youth. While we will work toward an appropriation next session, we also are working to generate revenue from other sources including a new license plate – the Insuring Foster Youth plate.
Additionally, Aly, Jim Casey Young Fellow and former Indiana Youth Advisory Board leader, presented to the Indiana State Board of Education and Commission to Improve the Status of Children in Indiana to share her work aimed at ensuring that educators know how to support students in their classrooms and buildings who are experiencing foster care.
“Working alongside Foster Success to improve policies and practices that directly impact young people in foster care has been empowering – to be able to support efforts to improve the quality of life and normalcy of my peers,” Aly said. “It has also been a huge milestone for me professionally to be exposed to people making important decisions.”
She also discussed education outcomes, a result of the Education Outcomes report Foster Success successfully advocated for during the 2018 legislative session. We have been working with the IDOE and DCS since then to track and improve the education outcomes for Indiana’s students in foster care.