Foster Friendly Communities are a people-centric community initiative that activates businesses, faith communities, nonprofits and elected leaders to create conditions where foster families and kids thrive, connected via our open-source platform, the Foster Friendly App.
Why Is Foster Family Retention A Concern?
With only half as many licensed foster homes as kids in care and high attrition:.
- Kids are more likely to be placed in group homes and be moved multiple times.
- Placements become farther from home. Siblings get separated. Extended family is out-of-reach. School changes become necessary.
- Child welfare spends more time and money on recruitment, even as it becomes virtually impossible to close the gap.
It’s not that foster families don’t care. It’s that they’re not being cared for.
How A Foster Friendly Community Helps Foster Families Thrive
Busy foster families can enjoy a meal out, thanks for a generous discount and a staff that welcomes and celebrates their families.
Kids in foster care enjoy new experiences: zoo visits, martial arts lessons, a birthday party and even a photo portrait
A WRAP team from the local church provides a weekly meal, helps drive kids and cuts the lawn.
Families no longer have to depend on word-of-mouth to source foster closets and other nonprofit and civic resources. It’s all at their fingertips.
Foster Care Is Upstream Of Top Social Wounds
It’s impossible to overstate the effect on a child of aging out of foster care alone…and on the adult they will become. The lifelong adverse effects are wide-ranging and staggering to individuals and their communities.
Foster care is a “root cause” of many of society’s deepest social wounds.
Behind these worrisome outcomes are hurting, vulnerable kids, who as young adults find themselves in hard places through no fault of their own. Every one of these kids has a name, a story, hopes and dreams–most of which will remain unfulfilled if no one stands in the gap to provide a stable home environment and family.
The challenges of today’s foster care system ripple into the vitality of our communities.
The Social Cost Of Kids Aging Out Of Foster Care Without Families Is Just The Beginning.
Age out of the U.S. foster
care system every year
Lifetime social-service cost
per child
Make A Difference Where You Live
Foster Friendly Community is a trademark of America’s Kids Belong.