FosterPower Receives 2024 Tampa Bay Inno Award

The Tampa Bay Business Journal announced Bay Area Legal Services' FosterPower a 2024 Tampa Bay Inno Awards honoree. The Inno Awards honorees represent talent, innovation and disruptive strategies—companies and people shaping Tampa Bay's tech scene. FosterPower is one of 30 honorees in 2024 that includes creative leaders who bring unconventional perspectives, growth-stage businesses, enterprises and innovators working above and beyond to set the ecosystem apart.

FosterPower is a movement to improve the lives and futures of youth in foster care by creating access to information on their benefits, protections, and legal rights. The award-winning free app and website gives Florida's foster youth access to easy, digestible information about their benefits, protections, and legal rights (independent living, medical health, education, the court process, placement, protections for LGBTQ+ youth, monetary allowance, and more). It also includes 40 short-form TikTok-style videos sharing the experiences of former youth in foster care. In addition, FosterPower provides in-person and virtual training for youth in foster care and adults (child welfare professionals, judges, attorneys, foster parents, etc.) on children's legal rights while they remain in care.

Since launching in May 2023, FosterPower has reached over 4,000 app downloads, 10,000 website users, 100,000 video views, and trained over 400 youth in foster care and adults (child welfare professionals, judges, attorneys, foster parents, etc.) on children's legal rights while they remain in care. FosterPower's impact has garnered praise from members of Congress; it has earned recognition from various national and statewide media outlets, including NPR's All Things Considered, theSkimm, The Annie E. Casey Foundation blog, Tampa Bay Business Journal, and several news channels throughout Florida; and it has received multiple awards, such as the 2024 American Legal Technology Awards (Finalist), the 2024 InnovAction Award by the College of Law Practice Management, and the 2023 Florida's Children First "Outstanding Non-Profit Champion for Children" Award.

The FosterPower team includes Taylor Sartor (creator, co-founder, and legal director), Rastko Durica (co-founder and product manager), David Gray (co-founder and business director), and Heather Tager (co-founder and advisor).

FosterPower is a program created and managed by Bay Area Legal Services, and funded by the Legal Services Corporation, Community Foundation Tampa Bay, and Suncoast Credit Union Foundation.

Learn more about the 2024 Tampa Bay Inno Awards honorees.