Kidsave

Every child needs a family. Kidsave is a volunteer-driven organization that is working to move older children out of orphanages and foster care and into permanent, loving families.

Why do we exist?

In the United States 129,000 of the children living in foster care are waiting to be adopted.  Each year, nearly 25,000 of these youth will “age out” of foster care when they turn 18 or 21 with no family to support them.  Older children are often overlooked for adoption just because of their age.  People don’t believe they want to be or can be adopted.  Adults rarely have opportunities to meet these wonderful children. 

Without a caring adult in their lives, the outlook for these children is bleak.  Studies have shown that four years after aging out of foster care:
 46% of young people lack a high school diploma
 25% have experienced homelessness
 42% have become parents
 Less than 20% are completely self supporting.

In the District of Colombia, there are more than 200 children in foster care who have a goal of adoption but do not have an identified adoptive family.  60% are age 13 or older. 

Kidsave helps older children find adoptive families by increasing the number of people who know and feel a connection to the children who wait.  Our Weekend Miracles program offers older youth in foster care the opportunity to enjoy visits with a family in the community.  Host parents welcome a child into their home for a series of weekends where they get to know each other in a comfortable, relaxed and nurturing environment.  Then, through a combination of advocacy efforts and host parent introductions of the child to family and friends, host families and Kidsave help that child find an adoptive family.

What have you accomplished?

Weekend Miracles is a relatively new program. To date, we have connected 12 youth with host families and mentors; other children will be matched with host parents and/or mentors as the adults are approved and ready to be matched.  In July 2008, the first adoption took place as a result of the Weekend Miracles program, with additional adoptions in process. 

“John” is one child who is being adopted by his Weekend Miracles host parent. When he was referred to the program in July 2007, John had been in foster care for three years and had already bounced between four different foster homes. A very personable fourteen year old who engages easily in conversation with adults, John was clear that he wanted to be adopted. He actively participated in all recruitment activities but without success. At his third Weekend Miracles event, he met “Annie,” a woman who had adopted once and had been trying for a number of years through different agencies to be matched with another teenage son. In their first five minute conversation, both John and Annie were sure they had found their new family. Within a few months, John was spending almost every weekend with Annie and soon thereafter, he was placed in her home for adoption.

Recently, John asked us how he can be a volunteer for the program; he is grateful to Kidsave and wants to help other children. And as Annie said a few weeks before John was officially placed with her:

I called my social worker and told her to stop looking for a child for me to adopt. I told her Kidsave gave me the opportunity to meet [John] and he is the one for me. I don’t know if I chose him or he chose me. Today it doesn’t even matter, all I know is that, in a matter of weeks my host child will be my son. I never knew that brief meeting I had with [Kidsave] would have such an impact on my life. Words can not express my gratitude.

	How do you help people in my community?		Why do you need my support?
	How can I be sure that you will use my money wisely and won't waste it?		Can I Volunteer? How?