Empower Hour Backpack Stuffing Brings Community Together
CLC’s very first Empower Hour Backpack Stuffing event was a success! Held at Prelude Kitchen & Bar, it was a beautiful evening where children, adults, and community members of all backgrounds came together with one common goal: supporting children and youth in the Sacramento and Placer County foster care systems.
A heartfelt thank you to Supervisors Hume and Kennedy for stopping by and showing their support, and to our generous sponsors, Hop Skip Drive and Wilton Rancheria, for helping make this event possible. We are especially grateful to Jordan Sosa from Hop Skip Drive, who courageously shared his personal story and the impact his lawyer and CLC had on him and his siblings. His words were a powerful reminder of why this work matters.
Together, we filled backpacks with school essentials, wrote words of encouragement, and built a stronger community of advocates for children and youth in foster care. Thank you to all who came out to make this event a success!
Join us for Advocates in Action 2025!
We are thrilled to invite you to CLC’s annual charity event: Advocates in Action, which will be held on Thursday, October 23, 2025, at Union Station in Los Angeles. This unforgettable evening will bring together community leaders, advocates, and friends to celebrate resilience, honor changemakers, and raise critical funds for children and youth in foster care.
This year, we are proud to recognize:
- Champion Honoree: Assemblymember Blanca Rubio
- Community Hero Honorees: BEIS
- Community Hero Honorees: CarePortal
From inspiring client stories to exciting fundraising moments, Advocates in Action will be a night filled with hope, community, and impact. Every ticket purchased helps ensure foster youth receive the advocacy, resources, and opportunities they deserve.
Don’t wait – purchase your tickets today and be part of this special evening!
Together, we can uplift and empower the children and families who need us most. This work wouldn’t be possible without you and we can’t wait to see you on October 23!
CLC Selected for Sacramento Venture Philanthropy’s 10th Fast Pitch!
CLC is honored to share some exciting news – we have been selected to participate in Sacramento Venture Philanthropy’s 10th Fast Pitch!
Chosen from an impressive group of nonprofits serving the Sacramento Region, this recognition highlights the critical work CLC does on behalf of children and youth in foster care. Being part of this year’s Fast Pitch is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, giving us the chance to sharpen our message, share our impact with new audiences, and strengthen our ability to bring vital resources to the children and families we represent.
Over the coming weeks, our team will take part in official pitch training, working alongside some of the region’s most inspiring organizations. We can’t wait to get started, learn, and grow through this experience.
Our sincerest thanks to Sacramento Venture Philanthropy for this incredible opportunity. We look forward to sharing additional updates as we move through their program!
CLC at NACC
Last month, 16 CLC staff members were lucky to attend NACC’s (the National Association of Counsel for Children) (NACC) 2025 Child Welfare Law Conference in August. Not only did staff get the opportunity to learn from and connect with child welfare professionals from all over the country, several CLC staff members also served as faculty for this important conference. For example, Attorney Liz Lopez, Social Work Investigator Jeannette Rodriguez-Bush, and Office Manager Elvia Vargas Gutierrez presented on Creating Informational Equity and Amplifying Voices: Language Access and Inclusion for Latinx and Beyond. Their session addressed the presumption that providing translation services for non-English speaking foster youth and their caretakers ensures equitable access to justice. The presenters provided practice tips to shift the informational balance so monolingual Spanish-speaking families and other non-native English speakers can attain the same depth of understanding in their dependency cases as their English-speaking counterparts in the system. This was the first time all of the presenters led a breakout session at a conference.
Thank you, Liz, Jeanette, and Elvia, for representing CLC and making us all so proud!
Staff Spotlight – Sarah Flores
CLC Parent Support Case Manager Sarah Flores is just one of our many dedicated staff making a true difference in the lives of our clients. As part of CLC’s innovative program supporting foster youth who are pregnant or parenting, Sarah and the Young Parents Support & Advocacy Center (YPSAC) team provide intensive case management services to clients at risk of becoming separated from their own young children. While there are many risk factors that can draw the attention of the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS), being both a parent and a foster youth has historically been among the most predictive – in California, 50% of mothers in foster care will be reported to the local child welfare agency, as opposed to only 10% of their same-aged peers outside of the system.
Young mother Penelope (name changed for anonymity) was about to turn 21 – and ‘age out’ of the dependency system – when she had her young daughter removed from her care. As soon as Penelope’s case was referred to YPSAC, Sarah began working to support Penelope in stabilizing so she could regain custody of her baby. Sarah spent countless hours over a more than two-year period helping Penelope to secure needed medical care, connect her daughter with critical Regional Center services, and identify appropriate childcare/preschool in preparation for her daughter’s return. With Sarah’s help, Penelope was able to create and maintain a safe and stable home for her daughter, who is now thriving in her mother’s care. Penelope’s story is just one of hundreds of young families who have beaten the odds and broken the intergenerational cycle of foster care. Congratulations to this young mom, to Sarah, and to the entire YPSAC team who shows us every day that we can and do make a difference!
“Every parent needs support, and that support can take many forms. The young parents I work with are the ones doing the hard work of raising, loving, and protecting their children. My role is to understand their journey fully so I can be a strong advocate during their most stressful moments, often while they navigate DCFS involvement. At the heart of this work is a simple belief: every parent deserves the chance to build a safe and loving home for their children.” – Sarah Flores, Parent Support Case Manager
Read the legal newsletter here.
Gratitude Corner
Sweet Support: Baya & Cameron’s Lemonade Stand Raises $1,000 for Youth in Foster Care!
Sometimes the biggest hearts come in the smallest packages.
Meet Baya (5) and Cameron (7) – two extraordinary young advocates who recently hosted a lemonade stand and bake sale to support CLC’s clients!
With the help of refreshing lemonade and yummy baked treats, the duo raised an incredible $1,000!
$1,000 goes a long way for the children and youth we serve in foster care – providing school supplies, clothing, hygiene essentials, and other critical items that help them feel supported and cared for. More importantly, it shows our clients that their community believes in them.
We are so proud of Baya and Cameron for showing that you are never too young to make a difference.
Thank you, Baya and Cameron—you are true champions for children in foster care!
“I did this because I wanted to help a lot of kids my age have school supplies” Baya – 5
“I wanted to do a lemonade stand to help as many foster kids as possible” Cameron – 7
Help their donation go even further by increasing or matching their contribution!