FosterPower

FosterPower is a movement to improve the lives and futures of youth in foster care by creating access to information on their benefits, protections, and legal rights.

FosterPower is a groundbreaking free app and website giving Florida's foster youth access to easy, digestible information about life skills and independent living, going to court, and rights to placement, medical health, mental health, LGBTQ+, money, and education.

How It All Started

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 Creator

Taylor Sartor is a staff attorney at the L. David Shear Children’s Law Center where she represents youth in foster care in dependency proceedings and in the education setting. She is also the creator of FosterPower, a movement to improve the lives and futures of youth in foster care by creating access to information on their benefits, protections, and legal rights. Taylor focuses on issues related to human trafficking, disabilities, commitment in psychiatric facilities, aging out of foster care, school to prison pipeline prevention, and more. She served as an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the Children’s Law Center from 2018-2020. Taylor received a bachelor’s degree in English literature, magna cum laude, from Florida State University in 2014. She earned her Juris Doctor with a concentration in social justice advocacy from Stetson University College of Law in 2018. Taylor is the founder of the organization Child Advocates of Stetson Law.
 

In the News

• Bay Area Legal Services, Inc. (FL) receives $405,346 Technology Initiative Grant from LSC
• FosterPower Earns "Runner Up" in 2024 American Legal Technology Awards
• FosterPower Receives 2024 Tampa Bay Inno Award
• Suncoast Credit Union Foundation Provides $10,000 to Bay Area Legal Services
• The Community Foundation of Tampa Bay Renews a $25,000 Grant to Support Foster Youth
  FosterPower Receives 2024 InnovAction Award
• FosterPower Receives 2023 Florida's Children First "Outstanding Non-Profit Champion for Children" Award
• A New App and Website "FOSTERPOWER" is Empowering Florida's Foster Youth
• Bay Area Legal Services, Legal Services of Greater Miami, and Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, Inc. Receive Technology Grants from the Legal Services Corporation

FosterPower is a program created and managed by Bay Area Legal Services, and funded by the Legal Services Corporation, Community Foundation Tampa Bay, Suncoast Credit Union Foundation, and private donors.