As America’s Kids Belong embarks on our second decade of working to dramatically improve the experiences and outcomes for kids and families involved in foster care, we long for the day when foster care is no longer needed,
But as long as there are children in the system our primary focus is on addressing this question:
“What is it like for them today?”
Even as I write this, the answers include:
“They’re being bounced from home to home,”
“Their foster families are burned out,”
“We don’t have enough families, so they’re being placed in shelters,”
At America’s Kids Belong, we’re designing localized ecosystems while also attending to the needs of kids in foster care right now.
Improve The Ecosystem For Families And Kids
Reducing the need for foster care and improving the experience for both kids and families who are involved demands ecosystem change; that is, driving fundamental systemic changes that will ultimately reduce the need for foster care and improve the experiences and outcomes for kids and families who do enter the system.
America’s Kids Belong is advancing this vision by seeding local, scalable Foster Friendly Communities. This “asset-based community development model” identifies and then seeks to activate the assets already in a community — from elected officials, businesses and faith communities to nonprofits, civic partners and child-placement agencies — to retain, recruit and support foster families. The concept is that by coming together to care for and appreciate foster families similar to how we care and appreciate for other first responders, we can help families feel seen, valued and supported and increase the likelihood that they continue to foster.
Our one-of-a-kind Foster Friendly App is the connective link between the community and local foster families.
So far this year our traction across our 10+ Foster Friendly Community pilots is promising:
- 19,154 foster parents registered on the Foster Friendly App
- 2,560 active business discounts
- 3,425 total active listings (this includes not only businesses, but nonprofits, 211 faith communities, 320 events and other support resources).
Our hope is that with support, more families will say yes to fostering and fewer will quit. These ecosystem improvements lead to a better experience for kids in need of care because, with enough homes, kids experience greater stability, with fewer placement changes, and are with families who are experienced and well-supported in caring for them.
Prioritize Kids In Foster Care Now
And yet, as we pursue this vision, nearly 400,000 kids are in foster care now. And 100,000 no longer have the option to reunify with their bio families and need to be adopted before they turn 18 and age out of care alone.
While often kids are adopted by their current foster families, this is not always feasible. And kids who wait the longest for families (those who are older, part of sibling sets or with special needs) often become invisible in the system.
Our I Belong Project ensures kids are seen and heard through beautifully filmed videos that help them advocate for a family by sharing their stories and hopes for the future. We recruit for families, ,while dignifying each child and his or her story. I Belong Project is immediate, personal and effective.
So far this year we have:
- Filmed 266 kids (85 last week alone!). The average age of the child we film is 12. On average it takes 229 days for a child in our program to be matched with a potential family.
- Recruited for 575 foster youth, with a special focus on 312 who are age 14+ (136 are ages 16-17) and at-risk to age out without a family. Eighty-eight are part of a sibling group.
- Generated 200,000+ website visits and 5.7 million in social reach, leading to 1,000+ adoption inquiries for children featured as part of I Belong Project.
I Belong Project is an upstream solution to the risks face when aging out. When a child in foster care turns 18 he or she is released as a ward of the state, but without the support of family will face a new set of devastating outcomes, including trafficking, poverty, incarceration, homelessness, among other social wounds. (My new book, Go Upstream, addresses these risks and how family protects kids and empowers them to achieve their potential.)
We will not stop supporting kids in foster care until every child is home. Seeing that day demands that we care for the children in need before us, while simultaneously working toward systemic change that will reduce the need, duration and often-traumatic effects kids experience in the foster care system.
