Photographer

Family & Youth Initiative (DCFYI) helps older children (12 to 21) in foster care find adoptive families and make lifelong connections with caring

DCFYI focuses solely on helping teens at riskof aging out of fostercare find adoptive families and develop lasting relationships with other caring adults. We are unique in that we offer opportunities for adults who are not yet approved to adopt or mentor to meet and get to know teens so that relationships can grow naturally, which is a much more effective way for adults and teens to get to know each other and get comfortable before any formal mentor or adoption match is made.

We are one of very few organizations that create low barrier ways for adults to get to know and help teens in foster care. We encourage creative responses to the needs of individual teens and abilities and availability of interested adults.

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DCFYI is seeking photographers to document our weekend program events, capturing both the activity itself and also photos of as many program teens as possible as they engage in the activity and interact with others. Our ideal deliverable is mostly candid photos (although some teens will also take opportunities to pose alone or with their friends for added photos).

Volunteer photographers will ideally be available at least every other month and commit to six months or more, allowing them to get comfortable with our program and known to DCFYI teens and adults.

DCFYI holds monthly weekend events (lasting a few hours) to bring teens and adults together to form a caring community and get to know each other. Relationships that start at these events lead to youth-adult matches for mentoring, host parenting, and adoption.

Events take place indoors and outside. Some are very active and others more quiet. Activities might include playing games, bowling, park afternoons, cooking, attending sporting events, doing art projects, and scavenger hunts.

Every spring we give all DCFYI teens individual photo albums containing pictures from the previous year (as many as we have of them). Many children in foster care get very few photos of themselves so they treasure these photo albums and keep them for years.

Please join us to help make memories!