Centering the voices of people with lived experience in the D.C. Child Welfare system.
ABOUT THE PROJECT.
Behind every case file is a story too often left untold. Too often, young people in care are collapsed into case files, defined only by the circumstances that brought them into the system—flattening the complexities of people’s lives. Terms like “neglect” or “abuse,” while true in some cases, are frequently used to describe families experiencing poverty, housing instability, or inadequate support, erasing the full humanity of a young person. For many, entering foster care can feel like becoming no one’s child. But these stories remind us: foster children and youth come from somewhere. They carry family legacies, community ties, and deep awareness of the systems around them.
Our lives didn’t start with foster care, and they don’t end there. We are daughters, sons, artists, workers, parents, and neighbors. This project doesn’t just examine how systems label families. It honors who we are beyond the file.
At its core, Beyond the Case Files asks: What becomes possible when we’re seen – not as statistics but as whole people and lifelong members of the DC community?
Every case number has a name. Every file has a face. Every case has a story.
A LIVING ARCHIVE.
Foster care isn’t just a system — it’s a story still being written. Washington, DC’s history is incomplete without the voices of those who’ve lived through its foster care system — yet these stories remain largely missing from the city’s archives. The DC Public Library holds no dedicated record of young people who navigated the Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA), leaving a critical gap in how we remember, document, and understand this city’s past.
Those of us who experienced foster care in DC have shaped this city — its neighborhoods, its culture, its systems — yet we are rarely named as part of its story.
Without intentional efforts to document our lives in our own words, we risk losing not just personal stories, but collective memory: of love that existed in families before separation; of communities that held us when systems failed; of the ways we continue to lead, create, and care in the aftermath.
This project exists because visibility matters. Archiving these oral histories affirms that we are not just footnotes in someone else’s narrative. Our stories deserve to be part of this historical record.
Beyond the Case Files is a curated series of select, in-depth oral histories centering the voices of people with lived experience in DC’s Child Welfare system — the foundation for a living archive shaped by community interest and support.
STORIES COMING SOON
Sponsor a Story. Be the Reason a Story Gets Told.
Beyond the Case Files amplifies the voices of D.C. foster youth and alumni through powerful interviews and testimonies. Your support funds these stories, driving awareness and action to transform the child welfare system.
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