Our Why

The Children

On any given day there are more than 400,000 children in foster care in the United States. 15% will stay there for three or more years.

The average age of a child in foster care is 8 years old.

25% of foster children experience PTSD (comparable to the rate of U.S. war veterans), and suffer high rates of depression and low self-esteem.

60% of domestic child trafficking victims have a history in the child welfare system.

For children in foster care, the government invests less than 50% of what it actually costs to raise a child.

The Youth

30,000 youth age out of the foster care system between the ages of 18 – 21 annually. The exact time a foster youth ages out of the system depends on where they live. Regardless, roughly 30,000 youth are forced to exit the system annually without having found a forever family, leaving them to fend for themselves.

One in five aged-out youth will become homeless after turning 18. Only half will obtain employment by 24.

50% of youth in foster care will never graduate from high school nor obtain a GED. Only 15% will attend college, and fewer than 3% will earn a college degree.

Of the 500 thousand homeless in America, 50% spent time in the foster care system.

Of the 2 million incarcerated in America, 75% spent time in foster care as well.

Of the victims recovered from sex trafficking in Los Angeles alone, 80% came from foster care.

 1 in 7 runaway victims reported missing were likely sex trafficking victims - 88% were in the care of social services or foster care when they ran away.