“Cal-I-Fornia girls are unforgettable…” is what Jacob Rusher was singing as his plane landed at the Los Angeles International Airport this past August; along with him were Reba Payne, Janteice Holston, and Cassy Blakely. In conjunction with a conference held by the California Youth Connection, The National Foster Youth Action Network held its very first Leaders for Change Conference this summer in Thousand Oaks, California. The conference brought together hundreds of youth from across California as well 19 youth leaders and their supports from all 6 of the Network’s program partners to work on national policies and recommendations as well as simple team building within the network.

Throughout the week the youth worked on developing national legislation and policy recommendations that was presented to policy makers from the state of California, Senator Karen Bass’ legal aide, and Phillip Bailey lead singer/songwriter of Earth, Wind & Fire and founder of the Music is Unity Foundations. Everyone had a blast at Six-Flags, swimming in the Ocean, and participating in team building not only in the NFYAN group, but with California youth as well.

The week was long and full of tedious work but it was nothing shy of rewarding.