MEMPHIS, Tennessee — NEWS RELEASE FROM YOUTH VILLAGES:
The need for foster families in TN is increasing with more than 8,000 kids in the foster system and not enough open foster homes to take them all.
For so many families, there were strains there before the crisis and then those strains are intensified with layoffs and furloughs and other stresses of just having children in the home all day. So that does increase the likelihood that there will be more cases of child abuse and neglect.
Dedicated to the over 400,000 children nationally that are in foster care, May is National Foster Care Awareness Month. With the right mix of support services, communities can help keep families together. Foster care should be part of that support and not a substitute for parents. Child welfare and community partnerships play a critical role in supporting family reunification and in preventing re-entry into foster care.
Tennessee Stats:
· There are slightly less than 8,000 children in foster care
· There are less than 4,000 foster families willing to provide homes for foster children.
· Less than 50% of foster children are placed with a relative and either participate in a group setting or stay with a foster parent.
Foster Care Awareness Month is a time to provide a platform to help repair a system that is plagued with shortages nationwide. Many enter care with little to no belongings and have suffered the effects of abuse, poverty, neglect or even the death of their loved ones.
There is a nationwide shortage of foster parents and stipends that don’t cover the essentials of a growing child. Foster Care Awareness Month shines a light on these children and points us all in the direction of solutions.
With over 400,000 children in the foster care system at any given time, and a new child placed into care every 2 minutes, the need for support services, essential items and foster parents is high. Foster children have an uphill battle with startling statistics to overcome and need the support of our communities across the country.
National Statistics
· 25,000 children enter foster care each year
· Only 50% of youth in foster care graduate high school
· Foster children suffer PTSD at more than twice the rate of US war veterans
· 1 in 5 foster children experience homelessness within 1 year of aging out of care
· At ages 17 & 18, one-third of young women in foster care are pregnant or parenting
· More than 70% of inmates incarcerated were at one point in the foster care system
· Stipends don’t cover the essentials of a growing child
For information from Youth Villages regarding foster care, click here.
