FosterME Campaign

My Why?

This isn’t just devastating for individual children and their families – the failures of the child welfare system are at the root of some our nation’s biggest challenges.  As many as 70 percent of youth in the juvenile justice system have been in the child welfare system. One-third of homeless young adults were previously in foster care. And as a result of our country’s disparate treatment of black and white families, black children are twice as likely as white children to wind up in foster care and land on its conveyer belt to other broken systems.

STATS

This system is failing.

• 1 in 8 American children is abused or neglected by age 18

• 1 in 17 kids enters foster care

• The rate of foster care placement increases to 1 in 9 for Black children and 1 in 7 for Native American children

• Upwards of 70% of youth involved in the juvenile justice system have been involved in the child welfare system

• 50% of foster youth will not graduate from high school on time

• 48% of girls in foster care become pregnant by age 19

• 60% of child trafficking victims have histories in foster care

• 33% of homeless young adults were previously in foster care

• Kids in foster care are 4x more likely than other children to attempt suicide

Let's change the picture.