The Mockingbird Society

Your gift directly supports young advocates and families through our three programs.

Youth Programs:

Partners with youth and young adults (YYA) ages 13-26 with lived experience in foster care and homelessness to become leaders and advocates for systemic change. Youth Programs focuses on building the power, agency, and opportunity of the youth and young adults who participate in the programs through advocacy and engagement in policy change.

Public Policy & Advocacy:

Collaborates with our YYA change makers to educate and activate the community, media, and policy makers, and to ensure that young people are included at decision-making and policy implementation tables. Mockingbird elevates the voices of young people with lived experience in foster care and homelessness, empowering them to share their stories, identify systemic barriers, and co-create solutions.

By centering young peoples’ perspectives, Mockingbird ensures that the policies it champions are responsive to real-world challenges and designed to meet the diverse needs of communities impacted by foster care and youth homelessness.

MOCKINGBIRD FAMILY™:

MOCKINGBIRD FAMILY™ is a globally recognized, award-winning foster care delivery method that is redefining systems of care by strengthening safety nets for children, youth, and caregivers. Through MOCKINGBIRD FAMILY™, experienced foster parents provide support and guidance to 6 to 10 foster families, which creates the structure of an extended family.

IMPACT

For more than twenty years, Mockingbird's youth leaders have been dedicated to transforming the systems impacting them and the generations of young people who will come after them. We have won 70 major policy reforms in Washington state, changing the outcomes for over 200,000 young people and prompting more than $252 million in state investment in services and support.

Mockingbird focuses on positive youth development in support of advocacy—being visible and vocal—which has been identified as a “protective factor” for at-risk youth and young adults. Our community-building activities support our young advocates by bolstering their confidence in their abilities, values, and voice. The skill of self-advocacy is powerful in building youth's leadership and awareness that they can have a role in not only improving their individual circumstances, but also enacting societal change.

Our agency has:

• Pioneered legislation to extend foster care from age 18 to 21, preventing youth aging out of care and into homelessness. This revolutionary reform has been adopted in more than half of U.S. states and counting.
• Expanded access to driver's licenses, college scholarships, and ensuring education credits transfer when students move schools - removing barriers to opportunity.
• Passed HB 1219 providing legal representation to children ages 8+ in dependency court proceedings to help children achieve permanency more quickly, after more than a decade of advocacy with young people, partners, and allies.
• Developed MOCKINGBIRD FAMILY™, a foster care delivery method proven to better support children and families through an extended family model. MOCKINGBIRD FAMILY™ has been adopted across Washington, the U.S. and even worldwide, with the U.K implementing the program as their primary foster care delivery system.

2026 LEGISLATIVE WINS

• Our support agenda item, SHB 2954 was signed into law! As a result of this bill's passage, proven McKinney-Vento protections will be embedded into state law, helping ensure that students can enroll in, attend, and succeed in school without unnecessary barriers.