KIDS MATTER INC

We are people like you who want to restore opportunity to our abused and neglected youth. We are parents and concerned citizens of all kinds – foster and kinship parents, birth parents and grandparents, child welfare professionals, health care providers, attorneys, the juvenile justice community – anyone with an interest in the best interests of our children. We are a small grassroots organization that puts volunteer energy into our most vulnerable kids. KIDS MATTER was founded in 2000, inspired by the compelling need to improve the lives of the many children involved in the child welfare system. Far too many of these children are not thriving or finding permanent, loving homes. Youth in foster and kinship care: * have the worst health status of any population of children in America; * drop out of high school at twice the national rate; * are 12 times more likely to end up homeless than other young adults. Today, one in ten children are being raised without either parent in the home. For every child in foster care, there are 20 being raised by grandparents or other relatives outside of the foster care system. If our abused and neglected children were brought together in one place, they would fill a small city. Yet they are almost invisible to the broader community. If you care, together we can change their stories.