Invisible Orphans

When we think of orphans we often think of babies. Sometimes we think of the 6, 7, 8, 9 year old. And then even more rarely we think of the teenager who is left with no one to take care of them, bouncing around foster homes, or maybe even living in a group home. But how often do you think about the 18 year old who aged out of the foster-care system and is now thrown into the world to be an "adult". These are the invisible orphans who often have no one stable in their life let alone a family. Here are few statistics to show you the impact this is having on our society.

The number of orphans:

On any given day more than 500,000 youth are in some form of foster care cross

the United States. Nearly 80,000 live in California.

Nationally, each year an estimated 20,000 of these youth emancipate or “age out” of

the foster care system, and are discharged from the system, whether or not they

are prepared to transition to adulthood. About 25% of these youth live in California

(In 2005, 4,249 youth emancipated from California’s foster care system).

What happens to the orphans:

Within 18 months of emancipation 40-50% of foster youth become homeless

Nationally, 27% of the homeless population spent time in foster care.

A history of foster care correlates with becoming homeless at an earlier age and

remaining homeless for a longer period of time.

65% of youth leaving foster care need immediate housing upon release.

70% of teens who emancipate from foster care report that they want to attend

college, but less than 50% complete their high school graduation and fewer than

10% of who graduate from high school enroll and college, and of those less than 1%

graduate from college.

50% of emancipated foster youth experience high rates of unemployment within 5

years of emancipation.

Forty-two percent (42%) of foster youth, including 60% of women, become parents

within 2.5-4 years after exiting care.

Parents with a history of foster care are almost twice as likely to see their own

children placed in foster care or become homeless than parents without this

history.

Females in foster care are six times more likely than the general population to give

birth before age 21.

25% of former foster youth will be incarcerated within the first 2 years of

emancipation.

I know that's a lot to take in but that is just the tip of the iceberg. So what do we do with this information? We decide to make a difference even if it is in a small way. The best part is when we are faithful to love God is faithful to do big things. Things that are bigger then we ever thought possible. ReGenisis rising in Orange County is a perfect example of this. For an example of what God can do with a few faithful people all you have to do is take a trip on over to their website.

http://www.regenesisrising.org/

Now wouldn't it be cool if we had a ReGenisis in every town?