FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hack Foster Care Summit Unites Silicon Valleys Technology And

Social Services Leaders To Re-Engineer Child Welfare System

San Jose, CA, Feb. 13, 2017 Child welfare advocates seeking to re-imagine the nations
troubled foster care system are coming together for a first-of-its kind event at Silicon Valleys
Hack Foster Care Summit Feb. 27th and Feb. 28th in Mountain View.

Drawing on the spirit of innovation that built Silicon Valley, the Summit will bring together tech
companies, government agencies, non-profits, community-based organizations and foster youth
advocates to advance three key goals developed by event creator Hack Foster Care: 1) Reform
the outdated technology infrastructure that often works against social services agencies,
families and foster youth; 2) Create educational and career opportunities; 3) Provide much-
needed access to technology.

The event, to be held at Microsofts Mountain View campus, will feature hack teams of
technologists, social services professionals and foster youth working on a series of problems
currently facing the child welfare system in the South Bay and nationwide. The teams will
develop both tech- and non-tech solutions that support the three strategic goals of Hack Foster
Care.

The event will also feature a laptop donation from one of Silicon Valleys leading technology
companies; the Lost Childhood Museum Exhibit, the largest collection of art, artifacts and video
portraits about youth experiences in foster care; and a keynote by Sixto Cancel, CEO of Think of
Us and a former foster youth recently named to Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

The ambitious goal of the Hack Foster Care Summit is to bring together the best and brightest
in Silicon Valley to challenge and remake a system for the benefit of foster youth and their
families, said Elise Cutini, Chief Executive Officer of the Silicon Valley Childrens Fund. The
Summit is intended to build on the momentum from last years foster care event at the White
House to create both short-term and longer term solutions that address the hardship that foster
youth face every day.

Of the 400,000 foster youth across America today, including 1,400 in the South Bay:
Only 52% will graduate high school
Only 3% will graduate college
25% will be homeless by age 20
25% will be incarcerated by age 24
24% will have absolutely no earnings between ages 18 and 20
At the age of 24, average earnings will be $690 per month
33% of females will be pregnant by age 18

In May 2016, The White House, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Think
of Us hosted the first ever White House foster care and technology hackathon. Since then, the
event has resulted in additional foster care hackathons, including one in New York in December
2016 and one planned in Los Angeles for April 27-28.

An Innovative Approach
To address the problems facing foster youth, the hack teams at the Summit will be applying
Design Thinking, a methodology used by technology and Fortune 1000 companies to solve
multi-dimensional adaptive problems. A key part of developing a solution is ensuring that
beneficiaries are part of the design process from start to finish.

Design Thinking is a cutting-edge process used by enlightened companies to develop highly

effective solutions to complex problems, said Durell Coleman, CEO of DC Design, whose firm
structured the Summits problem-solving approach. That we have foster youth on each of the
teams is critical to finding innovative new ways to address our collective challenges.

The event features notable Silicon Valley supporters of foster care youth, including Host
Sponsor Walter S. Johnson Foundation; Event Sponsor Microsoft; Gold Sponsors Box.org and
Google; and Silver Sponsors Westly Foundation, LinkedIn, Symantec and The Annie E. Casey
Foundation.

The event Supporters are Santa Clara County Department of Family and Childrens Services,
Adobe, Intel, Salesforce, Pritzker Foster Care Initiative, Lam Research, Comcast, Silicon Valley
Childrens Fund, TeenForce, Hack the Hood, iFoster, Foster Care Counts, DC Design, Think of
Us, Center for the Study of Social Policy, First Place for Youth, Law Foundation of Silicon
Valley, National Youth Law Center, California Youth Connection, Paxata, Baker & McKenzie,
John Burton Foundation, Stuart Foundation, and Silicon Valley Leadership Group Foundation.

To become a sponsor or to get involved in Hack Foster Care, please contact Priya Mistry,
Director of Philanthropy and Program Advancement at the Silicon Valley Childrens Fund,
priya.mistry@svcf.org, (650) 814-9837; or John Hogan, CEO of TeenForce,
johnhogan@teenforce.org, (408) 827-3078, ext. 1

Media contact
Greg Berardi, Blue Marlin Partners
415.239.7826, greg@bluemarlinpartners.com