Sunlight

In 2022, after three years of dealing with the foster care system, Ryan O. founded Sunlight: a startup built to reduce the amount of time that children are in foster care by improving the quality of legal representation for those children and their parents. “If you have access to high-quality legal representation, you have a shot at bringing your kids home,” he said. ?? https://t.ly/voTUO

“You never regret hopping on a plane to spend time with customers.” ???? One of the best things I heard from Adam Robinson after we “got back out there” and started seeing customers in person again at Hireology ???? Somewhat fitting that my first priority before officially announcing Sunlight was to hit the road and see our first customer in person ???? Two weeks ago, I got to fly to Tulsa to spend time Gwen Clegg and her team at the Oklahoma Office of Family Representation ???? They represent parents and children involved with the child welfare system ?????? What’s unique about them? ???? 1) Oklahoma is one of only ~8 states with a statewide office that represents BOTH parents AND children. Very cool. 2) They contract with private attorneys throughout the state and provide interdispinary representation — meaning their lawyers are paired with social workers and peer mentors who provide holistic support for the clients. Very important. 3) They raise the bar when it comes to providing high quality legal representation. They enforce standards for attorneys and make sure their attorneys provide the type of high quality legal representation everyone deserves. Mission critical. So glad that Keith Howard and Matt Anderson helped get us connected back in April ???? Thanks to Gwen and many others who contributed, Oklahoma will be the first state to roll out Your Case Plan across the state ???? During the trip, we shared our app with their attorneys, social workers, peer mentors as well as presented to their partners at DHS, the DAs office, and a few of the judges in Tulsa ???? Most importantly, I got to sit in court and see how things actually work on the ground. It was inspiring to see what success looks like when the system actually supports families ???? And it was sooooo frustrating to listen to parents time and time again share that their caseworkers never call them back and the lack of respect and urgency given to their families ???? To Gwen: I cannot wait to see what we build together with your team and your families ???? And how we will make this the standard for high quality legal representation for the country ???????? But you put it best when you posted this just a few hours before my 5am flight ???? “To say I am excited about my work day tomorrow is an UNDERSTATEMENT! Big things are happening! Tools to assist parents reunify with their children safely and securely! Tools to keep the goal posts in place and hold everyone accountable! I hope I can sleep tonight! ????” ‘Nuff said!!????