Today, there are over 10,000 children in Arizona's foster care system. These children come from all different backgrounds - economic, ethnic, social and geographic. They are infants, toddlers, school age children and teens. Many of them have brothers and sisters with whom they would like to live. And though each child is unique - and every situation is different - they all have one thing in common: they are living in limbo, not knowing what will happen to them today, tomorrow or next week.  How To Help

Where kids come from

There is never a happy reason why children enter the foster care system. Often, they come into care as survivors of abuse, neglect, drug exposure and abandonment. Because of their experiences, they are scared, confused and sad.

While these negative experiences have an impact on the children, they do not define who they are. Like all other children, kids in foster care have hopes, dreams and the desire to love and be loved. They are great children who have experienced not-so-great beginnings in life. They need adults that can nurture, protect and love them. Families who can help them heal and love them as their own until they are able to return to their biological families or enter the loving arms of adoptive families.  Meet The Kids

Why it's important to find families for our children

After experiencing the traumas of early childhood neglect and escaping a house fire that ended in the death of their mother thirteen years ago, DiDi and Ashley still have faint scars on their forehead. Fortunately, their hearts seem to have healed. In that way, they have been lucky. Many of today's waiting children will not be so fortunate; their scars are not visible, and instead run quite deep.

Without loving families, these children are often forgotten, left in a system in which their emotional needs may not be met, and their challenges exacerbated by feelings of depression, distrust and emotional insecurity. Children who have experienced such difficult beginnings need families to comfort, support, and love them and help them to heal and grow to their full potential. When given the love that they deserve, these children blossom into caring, thoughtful individuals.  Meet The Kids

Many children in foster care live in congregate care. In other words, they live in settings like group homes, shelters and residential treatment centers - places where there is no family. In the place of family is staff members who take care of the children's needs. While these settings are safe and caring places for children to live, they do not have the same emotional and social benefits that a family setting provides.

Foster families are able to give children a sense of security and belonging that group settings do not provide. They also teach children the values of trust, compassion, obligation and responsibility - things children need to know to become responsible and productive adults.

Adoption provides a permanent, loving family a child can call his or her own. Adoptive families take away the life of limbo and uncertainty children in foster care often experience, replacing it with a lifetime of commitment. Adoption ends a cycle that often leads to poor outcomes such as academic failure, juvenile delinquency, social and emotional instability, and poor parenting skills. Research has shown that growing up in a strong, supportive family is the greatest predictor of a child's outcome. Through adoption, children gain homes, families, advocates, therapists, and many other resources essential to shaping who they will become as adults.