One of California’s most well-known advocates for foster youth will soon step down from her leadership post, where she’s built a legacy of policy changes centered on the future for young people raised in government care: secure housing, access to college and improved social benefits.
Amy Lemley, executive director of the Bay Area-based John Burton Advocates for Youth, has spearheaded the state’s important reforms for these “transition-age” foster youth for over 20 years, and announced her departure this month.
“She has been a true champion of foster youth, and I’m so proud to have partnered with her, as California ushered in major reforms over the years to improve their lives and outcomes,” California Assemblymember Phil Ting said in an email to The Imprint.
Ting said given the vast array of reforms Lemley has weighed in on, the state Legislature was “lucky to have had her guidance.”
Efforts Lemley led at the group known as JBAY have focused on an array of desperately needed social services — from helping foster youth access tax credits they are owed to obtaining transitional housing for pregnant and parenting teens. Under her direction, a staff of seven at the $4.9 million nonprofit advocated for dozens of successful bills and wrote countless policy memos for a population too-often forgotten, those who reach adulthood while lacking outside support. Eight foster youth who serve on JBAY’s advisory board help guide the ongoing work and will assist in the search for a new director.
Cody Van Felden, a former foster youth who works as a youth advocate mentor at the organization, credited Lemley with prioritizing young people speaking for themselves during advocacy campaigns.
“She’s been an absolute champion for young people, and I will absolutely miss her,” Van Felden said.
Lemley, 53, will step down from her position on Oct. 1 to pursue consulting or similar work in the government sector, and is currently working with the board and staff to search for her replacement.
“I want a system where all young people have access to high-quality support and that is what my life’s mission is,” Lemley said in an interview on Monday. “And I’m going to keep doing it.”
In response to her departure, advocates, researchers and lawmakers hailed Lemley’s keen political acumen, creativity and collaboration that made her an effective champion for young people ages 13 to 26 who have grown up in foster care and often face daunting odds.
“Those of us who are concerned about transition-age foster youth owe her a great debt of gratitude for all the work she’s done over the years,” said Mark Courtney, a leading researcher on the topic who now serves as co-director of UC Berkeley’s Transition-Age Youth Research and Evaluation Hub.
Lemley has worked with John Burton Advocates for Youth — an organization created by the legendary California legislator — since its founding in 2006, and has served as its executive director for the last eight years. In an interview, she said she decided to move on after strategic planning conversations at John Burton Advocates for Youth, concluding that the organization is ready for a different type of leader. The self-described entrepreneur also said she is ready for a change.
Lemley’s lifelong vocation began more than 20 years ago, when she worked at a group home in Massachusetts for pregnant and parenting youth. She watched in horror as they turned 18, got booted from foster care and later became homeless and even lost custody of their own children. From there, the Iowa native enrolled in a public policy program at UC Berkeley’s graduate school to “crack the code” of the systemic challenges faced by these young people.
During her time at Berkeley, she canvassed many of the nation’s top child welfare leaders and researchers, including Courtney, who recalls her as particularly driven and inquisitive.
While in graduate school, Lemley and fellow student Deanne Pearn founded First Place for Youth, the first housing program for former foster youth in California.
“I saw that we had a system that just held young people who were exiting foster care to a higher standard than children from intact families, and really thinking, ‘These young people can do it all if they are given the chance, if we just meet them halfway,’” Lemley said.
Lemley’s experience as an advocate deepened when she left First Place for Youth and had an incidental meeting with former president pro tem of the state Senate John Burton. The famously foul-mouthed legislator convinced her to serve as policy director of his personal foundation, which initially focused on handing out grants. Lemley steered the fledgling organization toward influencing public policy.
She is quick to credit Burton for a multitude of successes in the state Legislature. While she brought an understanding of the child welfare system, the now 91-year-old lawmaker, who was termed out in 2004, shared insights about how to maneuver in Sacramento.
“At that time, I really didn’t understand the complexity of the state, and what it means for an elected official to have to weigh competing priorities,” Lemley said. “Because he had been in the Legislature in a leadership role, he could bring that perspective to bear, and together, we could find a way forward for things that kind of seemingly previously felt impossible.”
Under Lemley’s guidance over the past two decades, the group has focused on housing for foster youth, working with other state organizations such as the California Youth Connection and the Alliance for Children’s Rights to create new state-funded living arrangements in apartment buildings and shared housing settings. The organization has also focused on finding carve-outs for young people in the state’s massive spending on homelessness.
Supports for foster youth in higher education have also grown considerably, due in large part to John Burton Advocates for Youth, observers note. Since 2013, the organization has successfully pushed for increased access to financial aid, as well as mentoring and support on community college and university campuses statewide. Before that, philanthropically supported efforts such as the Guardian Scholars program were only available at a handful of colleges in the state. Now there are chapters of such campus-support programs at all University of California, California State University and community colleges as part of a $50 million annual statewide investment.
In recent years, the organization has broadened its advocacy efforts to include focus on policies covering reproductive health and economic security. The organization helped develop a tax credit in 2022 for foster youth in California, the nation’s first.
Debbie Raucher, director of education at John Burton Advocates for Youth credits Lemley’s relentless push for those policy victories, even if the goals took years to be achieved.
“She is very good at finding that policy sweet spot,” Raucher said, “those places where change is realistic.”
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