Foster Children Need Adoption

Imagine you've been in foster care most or all of your life. Among all the other disappointments you've had to deal with, you've had no parents, you have been moved time and time again and few adult mentors were available to teach you what you need to know in order to live successfully on your own - like how to manage money, where to find a job and why you must never, ever give up.

Michael wants to "make it" - but the odds were stacked against the 18-year-old man.

The reason: he spent his formative years as a ward of the state, bouncing among more than a half-dozen foster homes.

"When you grow up like I did, you can't wait until you turn 18 and can get out of the system," said Michael, who was in foster care since age seven. "I thought I would just pack my bags and walk out and have my own life."

Each move a child experiences is another loss-of friends, school, and surroundings-and another rejection for the child. Without consistent moral guidance, without a positive self-image, and with no cause for hope, the child becomes a fertile soil for failure and hopelessness.

Nearly 75% of children experience more than one family foster home placement during their time in out of home care system

One out of every ten children in the current foster care system can expect foster care to be permanent care, given that they will spend more than seven years in the foster care system

Being raised by the state can be a ticket to a lifetime of struggle and failure for foster children, according to a new study by the Harvard Medical School and Casey Family Programs. Researchers found young adults are often released from foster care without important life skills - many are alone and adrift after foster care with little or no support from state caregivers.

The picture grows even bleaker as teens age and leave foster care - as all must, ready or not - at age eighteen.


Each year more than 20-25,000 youth reach their eighteenth birthday and age out of the foster care system, this means an end to ongoing support and guidance of caring adults -NFPA (National Foster Parent Association)