2025 annual benefit

celebrate kinship families

This fall, like every year, we’re coming together to celebrate kinship families. But unlike every year, this year has brought unprecedented challenges of rising economic hardship and erosion of our social safety net, leading to increased violence in low-income neighborhoods. Kinship caregivers are stepping up to care for children whose parents cannot due to gun violence, mass incarceration, mental health and substance use disorders, and now deportation.

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Our mission to support these caregivers

has never been more urgent.

We want you to be part of this special gathering that celebrates our collective achievements, only made possible with your support. You’ll hear directly from kinship caregivers about how our programs have helped them navigate challenges and care for their families with dignity.

Together, with your vital support, we will continue being a lifeline for D.C.’s kinship families as they navigate the road ahead.

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keynote speaker

Son of immigrants, and the former U.S. Secretary of Labor and former Chair of the Democratic National Committee.

2025 KinCare
Visionary

Ron Wyden is the senior United States Senator from Oregon and Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee. His work on the Finance Committee has focused on lowering Medicare premiums and prescription drug costs for seniors, protecting small, independent pharmacies serving rural communities, expanding access to affordable health care, and addressing barriers to mental health care.
Senator Wyden believes in crafting big, bold solutions that meet today’s unique challenges and has been a pioneer in advancing meaningful changes for the nation’s kinship caregivers. Among many groundbreaking pieces of legislation championed by the Senator, in 1996, he authored the Kinship Care Act to give family members — aunts, uncles, grandparents and older siblings —first preference for caring for a child entering foster care.
In 2008, the Senator worked to advance the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act to build on his support for kin families by providing states financial assistance for relatives who become foster parents. The law recognized that relatives, especially older relatives like grandparents, were often on a fixed income and should be given financial help to take in a child, just as non-relative foster parents are. More than thirty states—and the District of Columbia—have taken up this option for subsidized guardianship programs. And in 2018, Congress passed Senator Wyden's landmark Family First Prevention Services Act, which established federal support for states to transform child welfare systems and keep more children safely at home, instead of placing them in foster care. Since then, Senator Wyden has actively worked to give states additional tools to successfully implement the program and ensure kinship families are properly supported.

KINCARE CHAMPION
OF THE YEAR

Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker is an educator and a public servant. Zachary grew up on the South Side of Chicago and received his Bachelor of Science in Communication Science and Disorders from Northwestern University and a Master of Arts in Policy and Leadership from Columbia University. He began his career as a 7th grade math teacher in New Orleans post-Katrina with Teach for America and spent nearly a decade supporting DC school leaders to improve student learning.
In 2018, Zachary was elected by Ward 5 neighbors to serve as their representative on the DC State Board of Education. He was unanimously selected by his colleagues to serve as the President of the State Board in 2021. In 2022, Zachary won the election to represent Ward 5 on the Council of the District of Columbia, earning him the distinction as the first Black openly gay councilmember to serve.
Since taking office in January of 2023, Zachary has delivered for Ward 5 residents through responsive constituent services and significant budget wins. He has introduced dozens of transformative pieces of legislation, including bills to establish the District’s State Superintendent of Education’s School Support Office to improve low-performing schools, and the District Child Tax Credit which provides low-income and middle-class families fully refundable tax credits for children 17 years of age and younger.
Zachary is a proud and active member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated and former board member of Love to Langa, an international nonprofit aimed at alleviating poverty in South Africa.