Join us for a live moderated Town Hall meeting!

This moderated discussion will provide an opportunity for survivors and former residents of youth residential facilities to share their lived experiences to inform policy change at the state level in California. DRC supports less-restrictive community-based care for youth and wants to hear your suggestions for how to improve the system.  

Live Captions, ASL Interpreter, & Spanish Interpreter Available

About the Town Hall:

Some ways that legislation could impact the residential facility system:

• Require data reporting & analysis – volume, demographics, etc. of youth placed in facilities through education, foster care, juvenile & private programs
• Increase funding for alternative community-based care/programs
• Increased safeguards for youth
• More in-depth state inspection and certification of facilities
• Create/improve standards for minimum qualifications and training of facility staff

This town hall will focus on lived experience informing policy change, and we will ask the following questions:

• What unmet needs did you have as a young person?
• Looking back, what services and supports could have been provided to help address those needs or prevent residential placement? 

Co-Sponsor:

Speaker:

Meg Applegate, Founder & CEO, Unsilenced

Meg is the CEO of Unsilenced, a non profit organization aiming to stop institutional child abuse within the Troubled Teen Industry (TTI). She is a survivor of two TTI programs, where she spent a combined total of three and a half years of her life. Meg is a fierce advocate for change, dedicated to protecting young people and ending institutional abuse and the programs that perpetuate it.

Disability Rights California Youth Practice Group Attorneys, including Gabriela Torres, Managing Attorney for the Youth Practice Group at DRC

Gabriela Torres represents disabled students across California at IEP meetings and in all types of litigation. Gabriela has significant policy and litigation experience in educational, environmental, and municipal law. Prior to joining DRC Gabriela was the Deputy City Attorney for the City of National City where she advised the City and its departments on matters involving municipal law, legislative development, environmental matters, and litigation.