May is National Foster Care Month

More than 513,000 American children are in foster care because their own families are in crisis and unable to provide for their essential wellbeing. Like all young people, youth in foster care deserve and benefit from enduring, positive relationships with caring adults. Now is the time to get involved. Join America's leading child welfare agencies, advocates, experts and foster care alumni as they come together to address the needs of these children.

This May, National Foster Care Month will serve as a platform for connecting more of these vulnerable children to concerned, nurturing adults who, no matter how much time they have to give, can do something that will change a lifetime for a young person in foster care.

Across the nation, caring individuals are helping foster children build brighter futures by serving as their foster parents, relative caregivers, mentors, advocates, social workers and volunteers. But much more help is needed. If nothing changes by the year 2020:

• Nearly 14 million confirmed cases of child abuse and neglect will be reported
• 22,500 children will die of abuse or neglect, most before their fifth birthday
• More than 9,000,000 children will experience the foster care system
• More than 300,000 children will age of our foster care system, in poor health and ill-prepared for success in higher education, technical college or the workforce
• 99,000 former foster youth, who aged out of the system, can expect to experience homelessness.

"Many children in foster care require secure, stable places to call home until they can either safely reunite with their parents or establish other lifelong family relationships. For older youth, it is especially important that we equip them with what they need to thrive on their way to adulthood," said Virginia Pryor of Casey Family Programs and chair of National Foster Care Month.

Each year, more than 20,000 young Americans "age-out" of foster care, most without the appropriate resources, skills or options they will need to live on their own. Without lasting connections to supportive adults, foster children are far more likely than their peers in the general population to endure homelessness, poverty, compromised health, unemployment, incarceration and other adversities after they leave the foster care system.

The National Foster Care Month campaign is presented by 14 of the nation's largest child welfare organizations, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation/Casey Family Services.

"We hope to inspire and engage many more individuals to take action in support of these children and their families. There are so many ways a person can positively affect the life of a child in foster care," added Pryor.