The Final Report and Congressional Briefing

Our deadline for the FYI's report was supposed to be last wednesday, but our faithful Programs Director got the publish date pushed back until the next day. I thought I would finally get some sleep, but lo and behold I stayed in the office diligently working until 4am Thursday morning (that is after being there since 9am Wednesday morning). I can now say that I have slept on the job! I ended up leaving the office at 7am while the paid staff continued to work until 10am when it was finally finished. The process was tedious and laborious, but we managed to edit every page twice over and then again! My coworkers were absolutely amazing and were a blessing to work with, even at 4am. My boss at CCAI is a Regent Law alum and two of her friends, also Regent Law alums, came to help edit at midnight. I think this speaks so highly of the Regent community. The Foster Youth Interns did so well at the briefing. We had the briefing at the Capitol Tuesday night, and several Members of Congress showed up and gave remarks. The youth shared their stories and policy recommendations with the Members and child welfare stakeholders. They truely looked like professionals, and I was super proud. They were very composed and articulate, and now, they are published writers! The process has really shaped and cut my character so much- from all the editing, working with the interns to shape their story, and problem solving with staff members. I know I am a better professional, advocate, and writer because of the process. At the end of the report every year, the staff include an outline of a star, which is to remember that we absolutely could not have done it without the help of our God.