FOSTER CARE STATISTICS:

• In the U.S. 400,540 children are living without permanent families in the foster care system.  115,000of these children are eligible for adoption, but nearly 40% of these children will wait over three years in foster care before being adopted.
  Source: AFCARS Report, No. 19
• The average time a child waits in the foster system, once biological rights are terminated, is almost 2 years. The average age of these children is 9 years old.
• 15,000orphans aging out of state-run institutions every year, 10% committed suicide, 5,000were unemployed, 6,000 were homeless and 3,000 were in prison within three years.

Each year, over 27,000 youth “age out” of foster care without the emotional and financial support necessary to succeed.  This number has steadily risen over the past decade.  Nearly 40% had been homeless or couch surfed, nearly 60% of young men had been convicted of a crime, and only 48% were employed.  75% of women and 33% of men receive government benefits to meet basic needs.  50% of all youth who aged out were involved in substance use and 17% of the females were pregnant.

Source: Fostering Connections

• States spent a mere 1.2-1.3% of available federal fundson parent recruitment and training services even though 22% of children in foster care had adoption as their goal.
  Source: Adoption Advocate No. 6: Parent Recruitment and Training: A Crucial, Neglected Child
• Over three yearsis the average length of time a child waits to be adopted in foster care.  Roughly 55%of these children have had three or more placements.  An earlier study found that 33% of children had changed elementary schools five or more times, losing relationships and falling behind educationally.
  Source: AFCARS Report, No. 19

HOW CAN YOU HELP:

SFL Media Firm has partnered up with ChildNet to bring awareness in our community to this crisis. Learning about what this agency and so many others do for so many children made us want to help.

Many children in foster care have very little to call their own. Everything from back-to-school supplies, toys, suitcases or bookbags, and basic toiletries are all needed by foster care organizations around the world. That is why SFL Media has  organized a drive to collect as many back-to-school supplies for the upcoming 2020/2021 school year for the kids at ChildNet.

We have set up a website with a registry of school supplies that the children at ChildNet will need for the upcoming school year. We are reaching out to all of our clients, friends, and family to help us reach our goal, to give these children a positive start to the school year in an already strange time that we are going through. Your purchase big or small will truly make a huge impact on these children’s lives.