Courtney Canova

Recognized as an Outstanding Young Leader by Foster Club in 2019, Courtney has utilized her unique lived experience in Washington State’s foster care to make a positive impact on the system she and her sibling were forced to navigate.  She has spent time in employment roles as a Case Manager for Homeless Youth, Program Manager for a Behavioral Rehabilitation Treatment home and The Director of Community Engagement for the Boys and Girls Clubs of King County. In that role she served as a King County CSEC Task Force member and worked  in partnership with the DCYF Office of Youth Engagement and Casey Family Communities of Hope Initiative, to develop and implement a community based prevention service hub which is currently being expanded statewide. Lastly she has elevated the voices of parent allies and youth in care as the advocacy lead and lobbyist for the Children’s Home Society of WA where she expanded the adoption recruitment model Wendy’s Wonderful Kids, Parent for Parent and fostering connections programs - to highlight a few legislative successes. Continually Courtney’s passion remains with policy and advocacy work. Since 2011, she has served on the WA DCYF policy advisory board titled Passion to Action.  In hopes to adopt and assist in the implementation of the Family First, she begun consulting on policy implementation and advocating for statewide prevention and reunification services. She does so in partnership with the Office of Public Defense, Court Improvement Training Academy in implementing resilience into dependency court rooms,  Coordinated Care, The Department of Children Youth and Families, CASA and various legislative coalitions - service providers. She served a term on the Board of Directors for the MockingBird Society, where she represented the organization as a Tri-lead on the State Family, Youth, and System Partner Roundtable through the Washington State Health Care Authority and Division of Behavioral health. She remains a member of the Health Care Authority YYACC subgroup to inform behavioral health care services in WA,  is an active stakeholder advisor on the Washington State Parent Ally Committee, individual voter in the Child Welfare Advocacy Coalition and  current member of the National Foster Care Youth and Alumni Policy Council where she has collectively developed policy priority recommendations specializing in special populations, which included providing lived experience in context of the intersection of human trafficking and child welfare at the 2019 Congressional Hispanic Caucus leadership conference. Courtney holds her BA from Washington State University and is  current graduate student at Gonzaga University.