There are over 400,000 kids in the foster care system and with this many people in foster care it is easy for individuals to get lost. Josh, a former foster kid, once said, “A typical birthday was one of the saddest times in foster care, at times someone would say ‘Happy Birthday, Josh,’ but usually the day was silent. I would feel worthless, like no one valued my life” (Time for a Reform). Many foster kids don 't feel appreciated or valued because people don 't even care about them enough to find out the most basic things about them like their birthdays. Saving kids from bad situations is very good thing, but only if the system places them somewhere that they can heal from their past experiences. Many foster kids get rescued from bad circumstances like abuse only to be placed with foster parents who are also abusive. The system bounces foster kids around from house to house until they “age out”, and unfortunately the system has a poor success rate for them. Less than half of them go on to live happy lives. On average, 56% of foster kids end up unemployed once they age out, 27% of emancipated foster boys end up in prison, and 30% of emancipated foster girls end up with early pregnancy (The Twenty Five Project). A foster kid’s time in the system affects them for the rest of their lives. A child’s character and personality truly develops in their childhood and teen years; so, if your childhood and teen years are terrible, it will affect you for the rest of your life. Kids are forever changed by the system and it is very unlikely for them to ever reach their full
There are over 400,000 kids in the foster care system and with this many people in foster care it is easy for individuals to get lost. Josh, a former foster kid, once said, “A typical birthday was one of the saddest times in foster care, at times someone would say ‘Happy Birthday, Josh,’ but usually the day was silent. I would feel worthless, like no one valued my life” (Time for a Reform). Many foster kids don 't feel appreciated or valued because people don 't even care about them enough to find out the most basic things about them like their birthdays. Saving kids from bad situations is very good thing, but only if the system places them somewhere that they can heal from their past experiences. Many foster kids get rescued from bad circumstances like abuse only to be placed with foster parents who are also abusive. The system bounces foster kids around from house to house until they “age out”, and unfortunately the system has a poor success rate for them. Less than half of them go on to live happy lives. On average, 56% of foster kids end up unemployed once they age out, 27% of emancipated foster boys end up in prison, and 30% of emancipated foster girls end up with early pregnancy (The Twenty Five Project). A foster kid’s time in the system affects them for the rest of their lives. A child’s character and personality truly develops in their childhood and teen years; so, if your childhood and teen years are terrible, it will affect you for the rest of your life. Kids are forever changed by the system and it is very unlikely for them to ever reach their full