May is National Foster Care Month, a time to come together on behalf of the nearly 500,000 American children who are in foster care because their own families are in crisis and unable to provide for their essential wellbeing.
Through my work with these young people, I know how resilient they can be. Foster children have an extraordinary capacity to overcome many challenges — but only if they have the support of a caring adult in their lives.
If nothing changes by the Year 2020, nearly 14 million confirmed cases of child abuse and neglect will be reported, and 22,500 children will die of abuse or neglect, most before their fifth birthdays. National Foster Care Month offers an opportunity for informing policymakers, business leaders and others about the urgent need for many more people to come forward and serve these young people. Without permanent, nurturing relationships with adults, foster youth 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.
No matter how much time you have to give, you have the power to do something positive that will change a lifetime for a young person in foster care. Visit www.fostercaremonth.org or call us at (310) 452-3881 to find out about the many different ways to get involved.

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