MAY is National Foster Care Awareness Month! I wanted to share some statistics about the foster care system. These are national statistics from fostercaremonth.org.

National Facts About Children in Foster Care

Total Population: 513,000 children were in the U.S. foster care system on September 30, 2005. Most children are placed temporarily in foster care due to parental abuse or neglect. Age: Average Age: 10.0 years 6% <> 26% 1-5 years 20% 6-10 years 28% 11-15 years 18% 16-18 years 2% >19 years Gender: Male 52% Female 48% Race and Ethnicity: As a percentage, there are more children of color in the foster care system than in the general U.S. population. However, child abuse and neglect occur at about the same rate in all racial/ethnic groups. Race/Ethnicity In out-of-home care In general population Black (non-Hispanic) 32% 15% White (non-Hispanic) 41% 61% Hispanic 18% 17% Am. Indian/Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 2% 1% Asian/Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 1% 3% Unknown 2% N/A 2 or More Races (non-Hispanic) 3% 4% Length of Stay For the children in foster care on September 30, 2005, the average amount of time they had been in the system was 28.6 months. Half of those leaving care that year had been away from home for a year or longer. 54% of the young people leaving the system were reunified with their birth parents or primary caregivers. Foster Homes In 2004, there was a total of 153,000 licensed/certified/approved kinship and non-relative foster homes nationwide. In 2005, 24% of youth living foster care were residing with their relatives. Adoptions In 2005, 60% of adopted children were adopted by their foster parent(s). The "foster parent" category excludes anyone identified as a relative of the child. 25% of children adopted in FY 2005 were adopted by a relative. A "relative" includes a step-parent or other relative of the child. Siblings and Extended Families Over 2 million American children live with grandparents or other relatives because their parents cannot care for them. When relatives provide foster care (known as kinship care), siblings can often stay together. Kinship care also improves stability by keeping displaced children closer to their extended families, their neighborhoods, and their schools. Youth in Transition Each year, an estimated 20,000 young people "age out" of the U.S. foster care system. Many are only 18 years old and still need support and services. Several foster care alumni studies show that without a lifelong connection to a caring adult, these older youth are often left vulnerable to a host of adverse situations: Outcomes National Regional or Local Earned a high school diploma 54% 50% - 63% Obtained a Bachelor's degree or higher 2% 2% Became a parent 84% 42% Were unemployed 51% 30% Had no health insurance 30% 29% Had been homeless 25% 36% Were receiving public assistance 30% 26%

During May, we especially want to thank our Foster Parents who have given their lives to take care of these children. They are truly the hands and feet of Christ and are living James 1:27 every day. The service they provide for our community is immeasurable! If you know a foster parent, tell them thank you, give them a hug, or even better, babysit for them or do their laundry!!! Find a way to appreciate the incredibly hard job they do day in and day out!!

We also want to thank our Social Workers, Teachers, Therapists, Judges, Lawyers, and other professionals in social services for the hard work they do every day to help foster children. It truly does take a village to raise a child!!!

Update on Swimsuit Drive:

We are still collecting new swimsuits and beach towels through May. We really need more towels, so if you would still like to contribute, please consider donating a towel! All the towels will be monogrammed with the child's name!

Panel Discussion

Blake and I were invited to speak to a new group of foster parents at a panel discussion Monday night. It was really encouraging to see people going through training to become foster parents. I think there were at least 7 new homes represented at this meeting. We were really excited to share with these future foster families about BigHouse. They were all very receptive to us and encouraged that someone will be taking care of them as they take care of foster children. Our hope is that BigHouse will encourage more people to get involved in foster care, and that our community will support these families in every way possible. Thanks to Allison at DHR for inviting us!

Also, we interviewed yesterday with a writer for The Crimson White, our university's newspaper. It went really well and we are so excited to share our story with our school. I'm not sure when the article will be published, but I will link it to our blog!

Clothes Closet Swimsuit Drive!

The BigHouse Clothes Closet is sponsoring a swimsuit drive this spring! We will be collecting new children's swimsuits and beach towels for our BigHouse kids. We are collecting boys and girls swimsuits in all sizes.

Please help us provide a summer necessity to the foster children of Lee County. We will be collecting swimsuits through the end of May.

In Opelika, please drop off donations at our clothes closet, 221 S. 8th St., Opelika, AL 36801.
On the University of Alabama's campus, you can drop off donations at the Wesley Foundation, 505 9th St., Tuscaloosa, AL 35401.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to email me at director@ourbighouse.org.

-micah