America's Kids Belong
Learn More About America's Kids Belong
The Problems In Foster Care
Too many kids.
More than 400,000 kids have been removed from their bio families due to abandonment, neglect and abuse.
Whether they enter kinship (extended family) care or foster care, far too many are suffering and left to feel like they don’t belong.
Not enough foster families.
There are not nearly enough families to provide temporary homes for these kids.
And when they do, too often they lack the community support to sustain the care; half of foster parents quit in the first year.
About 100,000 kids in foster care need adoptive families because they’re unable to be reunified with their families of origin.
Too many kids aging out.
Each year 26,000 kids age out of the foster care system. When they age out without the stability and support of a family, they are at far greater risk for many of the top 10 social wounds, including homelessness, unemployment, sex trafficking, substance abuse.
And three-quarters of young women who age out will experience an unplanned pregnancy and often perpetuate the generational cycle of foster care.
Foster care isn’t just a heart issue; it’s a smart issue.
Foster care is an upstream issue that helps avoid and heal many other social wounds.
A good family is better than a great program.
At AKB we’re working on innovative approaches to connect kids in foster care with families and to ensure families are surrounded by supportive communities.
Not everyone can foster or adopt; but we all can do something.
Help kids keep the most and lose the least.
Many kids not only are removed from their parents, but because there aren’t enough families, are removed from their siblings, friends, schools, etc.
