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The Office of the Foster Youth Ombudsperson handles complaints from anyone, prioritizing concerns from young people about their rights, care, safety, and placement in Minnesota foster care, including youth in Extended Foster Care and those who have recently aged out of care.
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Ombudsperson Misty Coonce will be interviewed on MN Live tomorrow, Friday May 30th, in honor of Foster Care Advocacy and Awareness month, and to share about OOFY. The show airs from 9-10 A.M. on KSTP-TV (Channel 5) and streams live on MinnesotaLive.com.
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OOFY Honors Foster Care Awareness Month
In celebration of Foster Care Advocacy and Awareness Month, OOFY is excited to highlight four Fosters who provided powerful written testimony in support of the Foster Bill of Rights, recently introduced into the Minnesota legislature. We are excited to continue pushing this bill forward next session alongside these wonderful lived experience experts. To learn more, please read the bios and pieces of testimony below.
Thank you to all of the powerful Foster testifiers for the Foster Bill of Rights. OOFY is looking forward to advocating for its passage for the 2026 legislative session!
Kaja Just (she/her) is a passionate student and foster care advocate with over five years of lived experience in the foster care system. She is committed to launching a nonprofit that uplifts foster youth by amplifying their voices, providing comprehensive resources, and addressing systemic challenges. Kaja brings a strong background in advocacy through focus groups, volunteer work, and service within marginalized communities, with a focus on both foster care and equitable access to green spaces. She currently serves as a Foster Postsecondary Success Advisory Board Member with Youthprise and is an Intern with Wilderness Inquiry, where she supports inclusive outdoor programming. Outside of her advocacy, Kaja enjoys spending time outdoors, making pottery, and engaging in creative expression.
In her testimony supporting the Foster Bill of Rights, she powerfully states: [Violations of my rights in foster care] “reflect a larger issue: foster care is not doing enough to keep youth like me safe, or to ensure we have normal, healthy childhoods. If I had known my rights while in care, I would have had the power to make informed decisions about my health, my relationships, and my future. The Foster Bill of Rights would have empowered me with knowledge, protecting me from mistreatment and neglect by the very people who were supposed to care for me.”
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Quarterly Snapshot
We are excited to share this OOFY quarterly snapshot. From January through March 2025:
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We reviewed 62 concerns from 25 counties.
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We had direct contact with Fosters* in nearly 50% of cases that involved a specific person.
*OOFY uses the term “Foster," following the example of those with lived experience, to refer to people with experience in foster care, no matter their age or whether they reunited with family, were adopted, or aged out of foster care.
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Dezarae Newstrom (she/her) is the founder of Healing Rae’s, a passionate holistic wellness creator, mother, and herbalist dedicated to supporting women’s health through natural remedies. Dez handcrafts herbal teas, waistbeads, and healing bracelets with intention and care, blending ancestral wisdom and personal experience. Focused on conditions like PCOS and fibroids, she is committed to helping women restore balance, embrace their power, and heal naturally from the inside out.
In her testimony supporting the Foster Bill of Rights, she powerfully states: “Many legislators can go to bed at night without the emotional weight of this system, but we live it and experience the residual impacts every single day. I’m here today to ask for the bare minimum. For Fosters to have legal standing in accessing the protection, respect, and normalcy they deserve. We know that this should be provided by our parents while in care – our parents being the state of Minnesota. Given this, I urge you to support and advocate for the passage of the Foster Bill of Rights.”
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Advisory Board Appointments
This month, the Governor’s Office appointed six board members to the Advisory Board of the Foster Youth Ombudsperson:
Adults Who Were in the Foster Care System as Youths:
- Jasmine Clark (Reappointment)
Attorney Who Works in the Juvenile Court System or Family Court:
Nonprofit Professionals Who Work at Nonprofits Serving Foster Youth:
Youth Who are Currently in the Foster Care System or Who Were Recently in the Foster Care System:
We are looking forward to welcoming these new members and growing the OOFY community. For more information on OOFY board meetings, you can visit our website.
Nia Dyer (she/her) is a Disability and Foster Rights advocate that has 4 years lived experience in the Minnesota foster system. Her hobbies include crocheting blankets for friends and family, training her dog, baking, and writing.
In her testimony supporting the Foster Bill of Rights, she powerfully states: “What I hope this bill does for Fosters is to show them that there are people out there fighting for them. I want Fosters to know that they are not alone, that there are laws in place to protect them and ensure they have the resources, health care, and education they need to thrive.”
Nia is a current member of the OOFY Advisory Board.
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In 2025, OOFY expanded our agency by onboarding two Foster Youth Outreach and Engagement Specialists. These positions serve to connect with Minnesota Fosters in various placement settings. As an office, we know the impact that being placed in facilities, and in particular in facilities out of state, has on young people in the foster care system.
In early May, Ombudsperson Misty Coonce and Foster Youth Outreach and Engagement Specialist Lexi Borgesen visited Minnesota foster youth placed in Arkansas. During these visits, our staff shared information about OOFY, know your rights materials, and resourcing guides. We are humbled to have the opportunity to connect with Fosters across Minnesota and out-of-state. Stay tuned for updates regarding future visits!
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Sage Amaryllis Desai (they/them/theirs) is a Foster and Lived Experience expert that teaches Pilates and is a full-time student working towards a Bachelor’s degree in Biology. In their free-time, Sage appreciates reading, learning languages (Spanish and Sign Language), and being outdoors. Additionally, Sage puts a high-priority on traveling—their favorites trips involving Northern Ireland, Romania, Indonesia, and the Maritimes.
In their testimony supporting the Foster Bill of Rights, they powerfully state: “With a clear, accessible document that outlines these rights, and these rights being in law, every foster youth would know that they aren’t just drifting through the system. They would know that they are entitled to their safety and well-being. This knowledge can make a world of difference in a child’s confidence, security, and overall experience in the foster care system. It sets a standard and ensures that no one can say that they weren’t informed or didn’t know what the standard is for a foster youth’s life.”
Sage is a current member of the OOFY Advisory Board.
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On May 20th, 2025, OOFY held our first Foster Care Advocacy and Awareness event in the rotunda of the State Capitol to honor Foster Care Awareness month and celebrate the one-year anniversary of our agency opening. We welcomed community members, legislators, and Fosters.
"You deserve joy, you deserve stability, you deserve a future that is yours to claim. One year of OOFY means standing up for voices like mine, and like yours. Let this be a commitment, a promise, that foster youth will not only be supported but celebrated."
Huge thanks to Jasmine Clark, OOFY Advisory Board Co-Chair, for her powerful words, Hoang Murphy of People Serving People for dreaming big in 2022, and thank you to everyone who has supported OOFY in our first year. We were honored to also hear from Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, who read the Governor’s Proclamation of Foster Care Awareness and Advocacy month, Senator Mary Kunesh, Representative Jess Hanson, and, of course, Ombudsperson Misty Coonce.
We finished the event with the reading of a poem written by Izzy Wagner, a Foster and former OOFY Advisory Board member:
"...with open arms and hearts so wide, we'll walk beside them, side by side. For the future of foster care, lies a promise of love beyond compare."
 Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan presenting the Governor’s Proclamation of Foster Care Awareness and Advocacy month to Ombudsperson for Foster Youth Misty Coonce.
Photos by Anna Min, Min Enterprises.
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The Office of the Foster Youth Ombudsperson (OOFY) is working with Child Trends on a study of how young people with foster care experience in MN learn about and decide to use extended foster care (EFC).
Are you currently in or formerly in foster care, and are you 18 years old or older? If so, join our research study about how Minnesotans who are or were in foster care access extended foster care (EFC services support the transition to adulthood for Fosters 18-21).
If eligible, you may be invited to a one-on-one virtual interview, and the interview may be either 30 or 45 minutes long. If interviewed, you’d get a Visa gift card for up to $50 as a thank you for your time.
This information can help adults make EFC easier to access and use by learning what support may be helpful to young people like you after aging out of foster care. You must be eligible currently or in the past for EFC, and we can help check this eligibility. You do not have to be currently enrolled in EFC to join this study.
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