Based on data provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services submitted as of January 16, 2008, there are more than 500,000 children in the foster care systems throughout the United States.
143 million orphans exist worldwide!
Among the children who are currently placed, there are approximately 20,000 children who will emancipate or age out of the system this year.
Nearly half of foster kids in the U.S. become homeless when they turn 18.
Nationwide, there are more than one hundred thousand of children in the U.S. foster care system waiting for permanent families.
"...for in you the fatherless find compassion." Hosea 14:3
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4 comments:
Why do you tell me these things.........I am running out of room for beds :) Although we did get foster approval for up to 9...Randy just raised his eyebrows when I said that :)
How many adoptive parents are out there waiting for children? Where are those statistics?
I know that the number of waiting families are smaller than the number of waiting children, but if the waiting parents were able to care for the kids they were waiting for then the number of waiting children would go down.
Having just adopted from the foster/adopt system and having gone through bureaucracy extraordinaire, I have really been pondering what the real issue is. I had also been under the assumption that there were not enough people stepping up to adopt from the foster system, but now, I wonder if the problem not as dire as the statistics lead one to believe. From my end, the "system" at least in my County is not exactly bending over backwards trying to get the children into forever families. The County seems so proud that last year they placed 200 children in adoptive homes, though they average over 8,000 foster children at any given time. And the majority of the children are not short-timers, but children who have been in care for years. During the adoption journey, I met so many prospective adoptive parents jumping through all sorts of hoops and red tape and just as many jaded and indifferent social workers. These are the people who should be best versed with the stats, but they sure don't seem too concerned. That and the total lack of services after placement - I asked a couple of social workers we were working with for resources if we should encounter any adoption related issues (issues like attachment - since they somehow forgot to cover this during our 24 hour mandated classes) and their confused looks and mumbled responses would have been too funny if this is not such a serious issue! And this is from social workers who have been in the adoption field for over ten years! I just don't know!
Johnson and waiting arms, you are exactly right! I would say the majority of the problem right now with the system itself! I don't understand how a system can be so broken and no one know how to fix it. I also know from my past experience that there are often time I don't undersatnd everything involved, so I am prayerfully entering this new "system" asking God to show me what I can do to bring the waiting children to waiting families! After all, that should be the goal of the system! :)
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