Meet Emily Yaw

I grew up in Goshen and went to Fairfield High School. After that I went to Bethel College in Mishawaka and became an Accountant. After I got my first house, I became a foster parent. I fostered for about 6 years and adopted two kids from foster care. I currently work at ATC Trailers in Nappanee, am heavily involved with my church, and host monthly game days at my house. I am a kid at heart, love Halloween, time with friends, fountains, and Disney World is my happy place. I love making other people laugh and am pretty sarcastic.

Backstory

Plot Twist

As a foster parent, I saw some of the problems for children in foster care. They stayed in foster care for years too long, or worse, sometimes they were sent back to their parents even if they didn't really make significant changes. Seeing the lack of accountablility for the Department of Child Services when they made poor decisions, in the midst of you trying to advocate for your children, was incredibly frustrating. For example, my kids were in foster care for almost 5 years before I was able to adopt them.

I started to try and make changes by increasing awareness in my own little circles. Making colleagues or friends aware of the problems so that they, too, could help make changes. I also started to try and reach out to my Indiana and U.S. Reprentatives about the problems, and research candidates so that I could vote for people that wanted to make changes too. But, I kept seeing candidates that weren't really focused on what I cared about, or representatives that were more focused on businesses or immigration, than our very own children.

None of my efforts seemed to make any difference though. So...I might've made a joke to someone that maybe I should just run for office myself, because no one else seemed willing to. Only, they didn't think it was a joke, and said it was a great idea.

So now...

...I'm running for office. As an accountant, I understand the importance of balancing a budget. Foster care is still probably the most important focus for me, but affordability, lack of housing, and immigration reform are pretty close behind. I'm heavily involved in my church, Servant's Hearth Community Church, and I make baked goods that they sell at the Elkhart Farmer's Market to raise money for their Community Outreach program.

Since I grew up as a Republican, I don't have some of the same hostility towards other parties and I'm willing to work with whomever I need to, in order to get things done. And my first adult job was as a staple-puller (yes, literally pulling staples out of paper), and I have had multiple times where I have had to have 2-3 jobs, so I get how you have to stretch each dollar you have as far as you can. Above all, laws need to be made for the good of "the people", and not just special interests, politicians, lobbyists, rich, business, etc...