Foster care youth are consistently mistreated and given a minimum of care or guidance. The system doesn’t work and the human cost of its dysfunction is an injustice that few are aware of. Consider this - two to four years after aging out of foster care, only 50% of young people will complete high school or a GED, 60% will be convicted of a crime, 75% will receive public assistance, 50% will be unemployed, and a staggeringly low 6% will complete even a community college degree. A system producing these results needs to change.
There are more than 400,000 children and youth in foster care in the U.S. Most people think the foster care system takes care of these young people in it. It doesn’t. The truth is that the foster care system in U.S. cities simply doesn’t work for the majority of young people. In fact, it often does more harm than good.
I stand with the Possibility Project and Know How to fight for the rights of foster care youth nationwide.