Autumn-Joi L. Barrett to lead Prince George’s County foster care task force
A new 19-member task force will review Prince George’s County foster care after 117 new entries and 439 children in placement in 2024. Autumn-Joi L. Barrett will chair it.
Autumn-Joi L. Barrett has been named to lead Prince George’s County’s new Foster Care Task Force, a 19-member panel the county says should do more than study the problem. Established under Council Resolution 125-2025, the group is charged with examining county practices and recommending policy, operational and budget actions that could change how foster care works for children and families in Prince George’s County.
The county’s own numbers show why the assignment matters. In 2024, Prince George’s recorded 117 new entries into foster care, had 439 youth in foster care placement and placed 11% of foster youth in congregate care. Those figures put a hard edge on a system that the county’s foster and adoptive services office describes as temporary care for children in need of help, while the county continues seeking permanent homes for youth.
The task force held its first meeting on May 12 in the Council’s Committee Meeting Room at the Wayne K. Curry Administration Building in Largo. A county video post showed Council Member Edward Burroughs III discussing the new effort, signaling that the panel has direct council backing as well as agency participation.
Its membership reaches across county government and outside partners, bringing in Prince George’s County Department of Social Services, Department of Family Services, Prince George’s County Public Schools, the Housing Authority of Prince George’s County, Court Appointed Special Advocates, Sasha Bruce Youth Work/Promise Place, Paths for Families and Bowie State University. The roster also includes community and agency figures such as Elana Belon-Butler, Elizabeth Faison, Nicole Garrett, Carolyn Floyd, Brian Wilbon, Erica Turner, Yolanda Johnson, Lisa Dominguez, Kamryn Kiser, Morocco Battle, Psalm Fowlkes, Jocelyn Route, Robert Bell and Angela Smith.
Barrett’s appointment places a visible community advocate at the center of a policy process that will have to answer a basic county accountability question: whether foster families, children and caregivers will see concrete change, or only another advisory body making recommendations. The county says the panel is meant to strengthen the social safety net and improve outcomes, but its real test will be whether those recommendations move into practice, staffing and spending.
The task force will also work alongside Jennifer Amaya Thompson, MSW, whom the Department of Social Services welcomed as director effective January 7, 2026. Thompson now leads the department that serves families, children and vulnerable adults, giving the county a new top administrator as it tries to make foster care less fragmented and more responsive to children caught in the system.
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