Spring 2009 - Seattle University

Co m m u n i t y Se rv i c e
Jim Theofelis
Fostering Change
After working for years as a counselor and therapist
to thousands of Washington’s most vulnerable youth,
Jim Theofelis, ’89, heeded the lesson of three women
and a baby.
As he tells it, the women rescue a baby from a river,
take turns admiring it and carefully set it on the bank,
only to see another baby floating by. Then another, and
another, and soon they’re stacking babies like cordwood.
At last one woman starts to walk away.
“What are you doing?” her friends ask.
“I’m going upstream,” she says, “to see who’s throwing
all these babies in the river.”
Eight years ago, Theofelis decided to go upstream,
launching Seattle’s Mockingbird Society to build a better
model for foster care and to reform public policy and
legislation in the field.
Theofelis has had a hand in roughly half a dozen
legislative reforms, including the Washington Foster Care
Achievement Act. Before the act passed in 2006, a child
with a general equivalency diploma lost foster-care benefits
when they turned 18. Theofelis paints a picture of a
young man celebrating his 18th birthday, only to pack all
he owns in a Hefty garbage bag—the unofficial luggage
of foster care—and set off in search of shelter.
“I’m trying to build a world-class system so kids who
are in trouble, and may or may not have parents who can
take care of them, can still have a childhood and a life that
doesn’t include trauma, homelessness and exploitation,”
says Theofelis, 53.
—Eric Sorensen
22 | Winning Combination