National Foster Care Month recognizes the role that each person can play in enhancing the lives of more than 463,000 children and youth in foster care, plus hundreds of thousands more who have aged out or found permanent homes. To honor it, we’re shining the spotlight on national and local organizations across the country doing amazing work to support kids, families, and the foster care community.
National Organizations Supporting the Foster Care Community
- A Home Within: Creates and supports stable, caring relationships for foster youth in an effort to enhance the emotional well-being of the entire foster care community.
- America’s Kids Belong: Works with government, business, faith, and creative leaders in various states to recruit and provide wrap-around support for foster and adoptive families, while helping youth who have aged out without a family reach their full potential.
- Foster Club: Offers several different programs to help young people in and from foster care become connected, educated, inspired, and represented so they can realize their personal potential and contribute to a better life for their peers.
- Foster Love (formerly Together We Rise): Provides essential resources, educational opportunities and scholarships, and emergency services for foster youth. Foster Love’s programs, from their signature “sweet cases” to birthday boxes and STEM kits, assist over 250 kids each day.
- National Foster Parent Association: Supports foster, kinship, and adoptive families through networking, education, advocacy, and other comprehensive resources to ensure the children in their care are safe, nurtured, and have lasting relationships.
- Ticket to Dream: Partners with local communities and businesses to ensure foster youth of all ages have necessities like properly fitting clothes and shoes, school supplies, and access to computers, while also funding life experiences like a trip to the zoo or joining a sports team.
Ohio Organizations: Helping in Our Home State
- Fostering Hope: Brings joyful experiences and programs to kids, pre-teens, teens, and young adults in Northeast Ohio whose lives are directly impacted by foster care to discover their sense of self though evidence-based programs.
- Fostering Love: Organizes potluck dinners, respite nights, dinner-delivery services, and other activities to provide care for those on the frontlines of foster care in Central Ohio (Franklin County), including foster children and parents, caseworkers, biological parents, and caregivers.
- My Very Own Blanket: Provides handmade blankets to children entering foster care, giving them a feeling of comfort, security, and a smile.
- Seeds of Hope: Hosts free monthly shopping days for families to secure clothing, diapers, cribs, car seats, and other essentials, as well as educational and advocacy events to create a sense of community.
Local Organizations Serving Other States Across the Country
- Children’s Home Society—Minnesota: Advocates for Minnesota youth in foster care, provides education, licensing and support to prepare foster families, and offers virtual support groups to help families connect and learn from each other.
- Coalition for Children, Youth & Families—Wisconsin: Strengthens and supports foster and adoptive families in Wisconsin, equipping them with the tools and resources they need to continually move toward resilience and stability.
- Family Room—North Carolina: Provides comfort for kids and teens entering foster care in North Carolina by giving them bedding, clothes and shoes, toys and games, school supplies and more, while reducing stress on foster parents so they can focus on meeting the emotional needs of the kids.
- Foster Care Support Foundation—Georgia: Provides free clothing and basic care items to thousands of children in foster and relative care in Georgia and hosts various community outreach and educational events.
- Foster Family Assistance Network—Tennessee: Assists foster families in acquiring the items they need to help create a secure environment for kids in care, often in quick or emergency situations where the parents don’t have enough time to prepare. FFAN often posts real-time requests on Facebook when they have immediate needs.
- Foster My Future—Virginia: Connects teens and young adult currently or formerly in foster care in Virginia with information about available services (education, housing, etc.), links to resources, and opportunities for leadership and advocacy.
- Fostering Families—North Carolina: Serves Durham, Wake and Orange Counties with resources for foster youth, training and emotional support for foster parents, and community/social events to bring parents, kids, and social workers together.
- Hearts to Homes—New York: Assists newly independent young adults who have just aged out of foster care in New York City and surrounding counties by providing the essentials to furnish a new home and increase their chances of stability and independence.
- James Storehouse—California: Provides emergency resources to foster children and their caregiving families in Ventura and Los Angeles Counties. (Note: If you live outside of the area but still want to donate, James Storehouse has an Amazon registry with the key items they need to help expedite children joining their new foster families.)
Additional Reading and Resources:
We’ve compiled additional resources to help you learn more about foster care in the United States, how to support kids in the foster care system, and how to become or support foster parents and caregivers.
- Child Welfare and Foster Care Statistics [Annie E. Casey Foundation]
- A Journey Through Foster Care [Youth Radio]
- Guide to Getting Started: Foster Care & Adoption [AdoptUSKids]
- State Adoption and Foster Care Information [AdoptUSKids]
- Family Resources: Foster Care [Sesame Workshop]
- 5 Simple Ways You Can Help Children in the Foster Care System [Adoption Network]
- Providing Modern Support for Youth Aging Out of Foster Care Programs [APHSA]
- Inspiring Foster Care Success Stories [Northwoods]
