I Beat the Odds_ From Homelessness, to the Blind Side, and Beyond - Michael Oher [82]
* Educational Advocacy, a statewide effort to give foster kids equal access to a stable education
* College and Career Planning, which lets older students explore different options for the future, either in terms of a career or working toward a college degree
Treehouse is an incredible group that helps hundreds of kids each year. But in order to do what they do, they have to have volunteers who not only donate funds but also give their time to do things like organize donations to the Wearhouse, or give music or dance lessons for free or at a reduced cost. I mentioned this group because I have worked with them in the past and I'm familiar with the great work that they do, but there are lots of organizations like Treehouse in other cities. If you aren't in the Seattle area, call around to see what programs might be doing similar work near where you live.
Aspiranet is an organization in California that works to help foster children and families feel supported. They also work to help children who are eligible for adoption find forever families. House of New Hope, a private Christian non-profit group does similar work in Ohio. Jewish Child and Family Services, based in Chicago, has programs in place to meet the huge need in that city. CEDARS, a Nebraska-based organization, has several programs, including one that helps kids who try to run away. The Searcy Children's Home in Arkansas specializes in helping siblings stay together in foster care.
In New York, Little Flower Children and Family Services specializes in helping abused and neglected children to help match them with strong, supportive families. They work with at-risk teens, too, to help straighten out their lives before they get into trouble and land in state custody. Their work also reaches out to disabled adults and seniors. Also in the northeast is Casey Family Services. They work in Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, and provide "Foster care and adoption; family advocacy, preservation, and reunification; adoption support and other post-permanency services; [and] community-based family strengthening and resource centers." The Martin Pollak Project is an organization in Baltimore that offers help with placement and support for foster kids and children who have recently aged out of the system; the Center for Family Services offers resources and support for foster parents in the city, too. The Tennessee Foster and Adoptive Care Association is one that does the same kind of work in my own home state, and Monroe Harding, Inc. in Nashville offers a lot of different care options, too.
Youth Villages provides family structure and support for children in foster care across the southeast in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, and also in the northeast in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Washington, D.C. A great feature about this organization is that it offers help to people up to twenty-two years old. So instead of just telling a kid "Good luck--you're on your own now!" when they age out of the system at eighteen, it gives older kids in the foster care system a transition period to look forward to as they finish high school and look to start a trade school, college, or full-time work.
There are also a number of group homes and teen ranches all over the country. The Florida Baptist Children's Homes have fourteen locations around the state to provide group home care for children in state custody. Methodist Home for Children is just one organization that places, supports, and advocates for foster children around the state of North Carolina. Sunrise Children's Services operates in Kentucky and has a lot of different programs and locations around the state, from group homes to family support.
There are also the Cal Farley's Boys Ranch (outside Amarillo, Texas) and Cal Farley's Girlstown, U.S.A. (outside Lubbock, Texas), which offer group home options