Brittney Barros

Brittney Barros, LLMSW/MPP is an innovative leader in the child welfare and runaway/homeless youth community. Brittney has spent most of her free time being a foster youth voice as President of her group Michigan Youth Opportunity Initiative (MYOI) and as a State Co-Director for the Park West Foundation, spreading awareness of resources available to those who have been in foster care. Brittney sits on the board of directors for a local nonprofit organization, the Student Advocacy Center, that works to promote the right to education for at-risk students. She is also a past member of the National Foster Youth Alumni Policy Council, a national group that works with key stakeholders in child welfare to improve child welfare policy. Brittney completed the Foster Youth Internship through the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute where she wrote a published policy brief to both Congress and the White House on sibling separation in foster care. Taking her desire to transform pain into policy, she honorably served as a congressional intern for U.S. Senator Gary C. Peters. Brittney has also written federal legislation, the Protecting Sibling Relationships in Foster Care Act which has been introduced in the U.S. Congress with support of dozens of organizations and congressional co-sponsors across the country. Taking her desire to make a change within the social system, Brittney holds a bachelor’s degree in social work and a minor in music from Eastern Michigan University. As a distinguished Child Welfare Scholar, Brittney obtained her first master’s in social work with a concentration in welfare of children and families. Brittney also received her second master’s degree in public policy with a concentration in social policy at the University of Michigan. Employed at the Michigan Supreme Court, she founded and created the Youth Advocacy Project, serving young people in foster care to achieve quality court improvement in child welfare proceedings. Furthermore, she is the Children & Youth Engagement Coordinator for the Quality Improvement Center on Youth Engagement, Spaulding for Children, and Michigan Department of Health & Human Services. In this role, she coordinates a team with lived foster care experience. Brittney has also been featured in various media outlets, including but not limited to, CNN, Disney Channel, and the Imprint News. Her long-term goals include bringing robust systematic change to the child welfare sector and obtaining her PhD in Social Welfare.