We foster CARE

When thinking about how to impact positive CHANGE in the very broken foster care system, I decided what better venue than the Monument 10K where more than 40,000+ runners and spectators will gather for one of the largest races in the country to get the message out that kids in foster care matter! This is when the idea of 'We foster care' was born! THe idea is that the shirt will drive people to our Facebook page & Twitter which will give lots of ideas about how to help kids in foster care! 

Aside from the horrible stories we hear on the news, not many people know just how broken the foster care system is ... and how very important it is that we start making some changes! Some days I think it needs to be shouted from the rooftops - and maybe this is just my way of doing that!

Almost every social issue is interconnected with foster care - homelessness, substance use, mental health, teenage pregnancy, incarceration, child abuse and neglect, juvenile delinquency, sex trafficking, unemployment and poverty! If we worked harder to IMPROVE the system that is designed to protect children and strengthen families, we'd be doing a heck of a lot better job in improving the world! Children and families involved in the foster care system are quite possibly the most vulnerable and lonely people in this world. All too often, they are forgotten.

Wouldn't it be awesome if RVA was known for being the example of a community that cares about kids in foster care instead of being plastered on the news for kids not being protected and our state having the highest rate of children aging out of foster care in the COUNTRY! (That means that our state has the highest amount of children who were never able to safely return to their biological family and who were never adopted! Ask yourself if you were ready to conquer the world at 18 without any help!)

So let's get to the good stuff ...

 After you've read all of this you are wondering why the heck should I buy one of these shirts? Buy the shirt so that you can be a part of making some change. Wear it at the 2014 Monument 10k so that we can have a presence there to get people thinking. It doesn't matter if you are running, walking or cheering everyone on! Then after the 2014 Monument 10k, wear it to other races. Can't make it to the 2014 Monument 10k? No problem, wear it out wherever you go! The purpose of the shirt is really to funnel people to our Facebook page 'We foster care' or twitter @wefostercare where they can learn about how to help!

And that leads you to wonder 'well how can I really possibly help kids in foster care?'. If you can't think (or learn) of any other way to help be a part of the change in the foster care system, just buy the shirt and wear it. Simple as that! The ways to impact change in the foster care system are so vast that I could write all day about them (the point of having a Facebook page where we can get the message out!). It could be as simple as buying birthday cards and taking them to your local Department of Social Services so that NOT ONE child goes without a birthday card on their birthday. Or maybe it's starting a running group for the youth that live in the group home in your neighborhood (yes, believe it or not, there is probably a group home VERY close to your home!). If you are a teacher, it's taking the extra time to be a listening ear for your student who is in foster care. Or maybe you want to do something big like becoming a mentor for a kid in foster care ... or a foster parent or better yet ADOPT a child from the foster care system! For you business people that think you have no connections to kids in foster care .. it's creating a summer internship at your company for a youth in foster care. Or maybe you really want to be radical and can start a book club for women whose children are in foster care. Maybe it's getting your religious group to pray for those touched by the foster care system! I could go on and on. I'm convinced there is not ONE person in our community that can't help in some way!

 Be the change. Start by buying the shirt.