Enhancing the lives of children in foster care through support and advocacy to create opportunities for a brighter future.
We exist to move the needle on some of these horrible statistics facing our kids in foster care.
- Nationwide, there are about 500,000 children and youth in the foster care system – through no fault of their own.
- In Central Florida, there are about 1500 children in the foster care system.
- Kids in foster care change families, schools, and communities with appalling frequency. Two-thirds move seven or more times while in foster care.
- Education is almost always delayed and disrupted. Life on the move – without parents to provide continuity and a sense of connection – leaves these kids particularly ill-equipped for the transition to adulthood. Many are two years behind their peers in school.
- Adults who have been in foster care suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder at twice the rate of US combat veterans. More than half experience serious mental health problems.
- One of the most vulnerable populations is a child in foster care. The FBI reports that close to 60 percent of the children rescued from sex trafficking were from foster care or group homes.
- Each year, 26,000 youth transition from foster care without the typical growing-up experiences that teach self-sufficiency skills, and without the family supports and community networks that help them make successful transitions to adulthood. These young people experience very poor outcomes at a much higher rate than the general population:
- More than one in five transitioning youth will become homeless after age 18
- Only 58 percent will graduate high school by age 19 (compared to 87 percent of all 19 year olds)
- 71 percent of young women are pregnant by 21, facing higher rates of unemployment, criminal conviction, public assistance, and involvement in the child welfare system
- At the age of 24, only half are employed
- Fewer than 3 percent will earn a college degree by age 25 (compared to 28 percent of all 25 year olds
- One in four will be involved in the justice system within two years of leaving the foster care system