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Aaryn Pratt Has a Mission: A Foster-Free Future

In the United States today, there are more than half a million children in foster care. Often they escape situations of neglect and abuse only to enter into a flawed system in which they are shuffled around, left feeling voiceless, homeless, and hopeless.

Aaryn Pratt (MSOD '05) can attest.

"My mother had major drug addictions; she was in and out of prison, so I went to live with my grandparents, who were alcoholics. In my first year of foster care I moved nine times."

Studies have consistently revealed poor outcomes for these youth after they leave foster care. But Pratt beat the odds: She graduated from high school and put herself through college and graduate school, earning a master's degree in organizational development at Pepperdine's Graziadio School of Business and Management. Soon after graduating, she earned her position as director of organizational effectiveness at Gap, Inc.

In her work, Pratt is all about the big-picture solutions and aligning systems to work together in harmony. "I love connecting the dots and developing strategy for effective change," she says.

Upon achieving her professional success, Pratt decided she needed to do something to make a difference in the highly flawed system of foster care. In her neighborhood of San Rafael, California, she found Marin Advocates for Children (MAC), an organization that is dedicated to preventing abuse and advocating for the best interests of children.

One of MAC's biggest initiatives is recruiting, screening, training, and supervising volunteers to become Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs). CASA volunteers are sworn officers of the court, appointed to investigate and report on the best interests of foster children.

"I didn't have a CASA," Pratt laments. "At 6 years old, I had to represent myself, and at 6, no one believes you."

The problem is that the training to become a CASA is highly rigorous and the position is unpaid. "They go through 32 hours of training, and it requires a year-long commitment. Then they also have their continuing education every year."

Using her organizational development background, Pratt came up with an idea for an e-learning program to expand the agency’s learning and education programs for its CASA volunteers.

She submitted a proposal for Gap, Inc.'s annual "Founders’ Award," which awards $50,000 in grant money to an employee who proposes an innovative solution to deliver a positive social impact. The judges were so touched by her story, and the potential impact of the program, that they selected Pratt's proposal out of hundreds.

"The e-learning platform will supplement and provide additional options for the CASA training," says Pratt, who notes that the scope of the program is endless due to its digital nature. "We don’t need to stay small. With this platform, we can be a portal to build community and collaboration with other agencies."

Pratt has one year to launch the platform, and Toby Lenk, president of the e-commerce division of Gap Inc., has signed on to ensure that she has the resources she needs. But that is not the end of Pratt's crusade. Fueled by the determination to help foster children break the cycle like she has, she continues to look toward the bigger picture.

"I am the possibility of a foster-free future. I will always be working toward that—it's a lifelong commitment."

By Audra Quinn