May, national Foster Care month

When Jason called us a few months back we initially thought it was a prank call. He kept us on the call because we listen with the heart. He wanted to move in with one of our single moms (as in a brother relationship to share expenses with a family). He had aged out of Foster Care. He had endured more than a dozen foster homes and now he had no place to go, no family, and the 20hr a week min wage job would not pay for even a rat hole apartment, let alone furniture, food, transportation, and utilities. The male volunteer who took the call and gave him options said it was heartbreaking.

We also took a call from a 18year old pregnant girl in another part of the country. When she aged out of Foster Care, she "couch surfed" while working as a waitress in a diner. She had to quit when she was eight months pregnant. We asked her about family; she said her mother did not want her, she never knew her father, and the boy who got her pregnant got another girl pregnant at the same time and was unable to help her.
Both callers were very humble, sincere, polite, and desperate.
Since those two are sanitized experiences with kids given up for a "better life" you can only imagine what the real picture looks like.
Don't look away as if it were not your business.
Everybody can do something.

http://www.childrensrights.org/our-kids/fostering-the-future/2016/