National Foster Care Month

by Abigail Knowles Wolfe (BPRW)

Approximately 513,000 American youth and children were in the foster care system as of September 30, 2005 according to statistics provided by AFCARS, the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System. These children were placed temporarily in foster care due to parental abuse or neglect.

May is National Foster Care Month, celebrating the foster parents, relative caregivers, mentors, advocates, social workers and volunteers who give so much of themselves and their time on a regular basis to improve the lives of the children who end up in the system. National Foster Care Month also celebrates the success stories or the children and youth who have exited the foster care system to live meaningful and productive lives.

Stories told about the foster care system tend to be either all good or all bad, darting between extremes. When considering the ups and downs of a system set in place to protect and nurture children, it is important to note that communities across the country are constantly seeking more everyday citizens to help these youth rise above their often troubled childhoods to realize their own potential and what life has to offer them.

While child abuse and neglect tend to occur at the same rate across racial and ethnic lines, there are more children of color within the foster care system than are present in the general U.S. population. The loving foster parents across the country, opening their homes and lives to children in need, make the greatest of positive impacts on the lives that they shape and it is our hope that more people will be able to support this system as time passes to give these children a greater chance at living a fulfilling life.